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UPON A DAY 219 



bird has been carrying to its young ones every few 

 minutes through the night. 



In the sycamore now the babies are snoring, as you 

 may hear them at sermon-time in a country church. 

 For this is the owl of church towers and hollow trees, 

 while the tawny, like the long-eared owl, oftener nests 

 in places quite exposed. 



But the east is beginning to redden now. Dark, 

 almost to blackness, stands out our line of elms, clear- 

 cut against a band of crystal sky, that slowly widens 

 with the rising of the curtain of the night. And now 

 long, rose-coloured filaments begin to feel their way 

 up through the diaphanous haze of the lower zones, 

 and now the warm glow catching, slowly at first, leaps 

 from cloud to cloud, till the whole wide eastern sky is 

 ablush like the peach-gardens of the south. But the 

 elms and the broad meadows round them are not 

 lighted yet. Now turn round and see how great the 



difference ; for 



— not by eastern windows only, 



When daylight dawns, comes in the light. 



In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly, 



But westward, look, the land is bright. 



Before he lights the fire for breakfast our friend will 

 have his morning swim. It is less a swim than an 

 exploration. Instead of amusing himself by taking 



