THE PAGEANT OF SUMMER 



hedges. Brake-fern rises five feet high; 

 in some way woodpeckers are associated 

 with brake, and there seem more of them 

 where it flourishes. If you count the 

 depth and strength of its roots in the 

 loamy sand, add the thickness of its flat- 

 tened stem, and the width of its branching 

 fronds, you may say that it comes near to 

 be a little tree. Beneath where the ponds 

 are bushy mare's tails grow, and on the 

 moist banks jointed pewterwort; some of 

 the broad bronze leaves of water-weeds 

 seem to try and conquer the pond and 

 cover it so firmly that a wagtail may run 

 on them. A white butterfly follows 

 along the waggon-road, the pheasants 

 slip away as quietly as the butterfly flies, 

 but a jay screeches loudly and flutters 

 in high rage to see us. Under an 

 ancient garden wall among matted bines 

 of trumpet convolvulus, there is a hedge- 

 sparrow's nest overhung with ivy on 

 which even now the last black berries 

 cling. 



39 



