THE PAGEANT OF SUMMER 



some of the sweetness of the air had 

 entered into their fibres, and the rushes 

 the common rushes were full of beauti- 

 ful summer. The white pollen of early 

 grasses growing on the edge was dusted 

 from them each time the hawthorn boughs 

 were shaken by a thrush. These lower 

 sprays came down in among the grass, 

 and leaves and grass-blades touched. 

 Smooth round stems of angelica, big as a 

 gun-barrel, hollow and strong, stood on 

 the slope of the mound, their tiers of 

 well-balanced branches rising like those 

 of a tree. Such a sturdy growth pushed 

 back the ranks of hedge parsley in full 

 white flower, which blocked every avenue 

 and winding bird's-path of the bank. But 

 the ' gix,' or wild parsnip, reached already 

 high above both, and would rear its fluted 

 stalk, joint on joint, till it could face a 

 man. Trees they were to the lesser birds, 

 not even bending if perched on; but 

 though so stout, the birds did not place 

 their nests on or against them. Some- 



