BITS OF OAK BARK. 39 



was busy with his spade at a strip of garden, and 

 grumbled that the hares would not let it alone, with 

 all that stretch of grass to feed on. Nor would the 

 rooks ; and the moorhens ran over it, and the water- 

 rats burrowed; the wood-pigeons would have the peas, 

 and there was no rest from them all. While he talked 

 and talked, far from the object in hand, as aged people 

 will, I thought how the apple tree in blossom before 

 us cared little enough who saw its glory. The branches 

 were in bloom everywhere, at the top as well as at the 

 side ; at the top where no one could see them but the 

 swallows. They did not grow for human admiration : 

 that was not their purpose ; that is our affair only — - 

 we bring the thought to the tree. On a short branch 

 low down the trunk there hung the weather-beaten 

 and broken handle of an earthenware vessel ; the old 

 man said it was a jug, one of the old folks' jugs — he 

 often dug them up. Some were cracked, some nearly 

 perfect ; lots of them had been thrown out to mend 

 the lane. There were some chips among the heap of 

 weeds yonder. These fragments were the remains of 

 Anglo- Roman pottery. Coins had been found — half 

 a gallon of them — the children had had most. He 

 took one from his pocket, dug up that morning ; they 

 were of no value, they would not ring. The labourers 

 tried to get some ale for them, but could not ; no one 

 would take the little brass things. That was all he 

 knew of the Csesars : the apples were in fine bloom 

 now, weren't they ? 



Fifteen centuries before there had been a Roman 

 station at the spot where the lane crossed the brook. 

 There the centurions rested their troops after their 



