THE PAGEANT OF SUMMER 



cup. A blackbird, gleaming, so black is 

 he, splashing in the runlet of water across 

 the gateway. A ruddy kingfisher swiftly 

 drawing himself, as you might draw a 

 stroke with a pencil, over the surface of 

 the yellow buttercups, and away above 

 the hedge. Hart's-tongue fern, thick with 

 green, so green as to be thick with its 

 colour, deep in the ditch under the shady 

 hazel boughs. White meadow-sweet lift- 

 ing its tiny florets, and black flowered 

 sedges. You must push through the reed 

 grass to find the sword flags; the stout 

 willow herbs will not be trampled down, 

 but resist the foot like underwood. Pink 

 lychnis flowers behind the withy stoles, 

 and little black moorhens swim away, as 

 you gather it, after their mother, who has 

 dived under the water-grass, and broken 

 the smooth surface of the duckweed. 

 Yellow loosestrife is rising, thick comfrey 

 stands at the very edge; the sandpipers 

 run where the shore is free from bushes. 

 Back by the underwood the prickly and 



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