8 TEE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



of money his mighty arms had torn from the sun in 

 the burning hours of work. Dolly was ill at home ; 

 sometimes in her room, sometimes downstairs ; but ill, 

 shaky and weak — ague they called it. There were 

 dark circles round her eyes, her chin drooped to her 

 breast ; she wrapped herself in a shawl in all the heat. 

 It was some time before even the necessity of working 

 brought her forth again, and then her manner was 

 hurried and furtive ; she would begin trembling all of 

 a minute, and her eyes filled quickly. 



By degrees the autumn advanced, and the rooks 

 followed the ploughman. Dolly gradually recovered 

 something of her physical buoyancy ; her former light- 

 heartedness never returned. Sometimes an incident 

 would cause a flash of the old gaiety, only for her to 

 sink back into subdued quietness. The change was 

 most noticeable in her eyes ; soft and tender still, 

 brown and velvety, there was a deep sadness in them 

 — the longer she looked at you, the more it was visible. 

 They seemed as if her spirit had suffered some great 

 wrong ; too great for redress, and that could only be 

 borne in silence. 



How beautiful are beautiful eyes ! Not from one 

 aspect only, as a picture is, where the light falls rightly 

 on it — the painter's point of view — they vary to every 

 and any aspect. The orb rolls to meet the changing 

 circumstance, and is adjusted to all. But a little 

 enquiry into the mechanism of the eyes will indicate 

 how wondrously they are formed. Science has dis- 

 pelled many illusions, broken many dreams ; but here, 

 in the investigation of the eye, it has added to our 

 marvelling interest. The eye is still like the work of 



