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SUMMER 



spiny stems lift half a dozen green berries slowly turning to 

 red in the summer heats ; elders open a creamy cluster in 

 June, that shines briefly upon the crown of the wall like the 

 wild rose blossoms that vanished a week or two earlier. 

 Small yews clamp their roots among the stones, but these do 

 not produce flower or fruit ; for fruiting an ampler growth is 

 needed than they can attain on the scanty soil of the wall. 

 Birds sowed the berries, and birds come again to feed on 

 their produce. When the bullfinches and flocks of titmice 



begin their autumn wanderings, they pause upon the crest of 

 the wall to strip the scarlet hips of the wild rose ; and the 

 blackbirds warily watching till the coast is clear for a descent 

 upon the July strawberry-beds peck impatiently at the dwarf 

 red berries beside them, which whet their zest for the richer 

 spoil below. The hazels and oaks that sometimes foster a 

 growth of a few inches in the crevices of the wall are probably 

 sown by mice or rats, and not by birds. Nuthatches and 

 spotted woodpeckers will carry off nuts from the garden, and 

 rooks acorns in much the same way ; but none of these 

 birds have the habit of resting on the garden-wall, as the 

 marauding blackbirds do, or of hiding their booty in its 



