THE COUNTRY LIFE. 265 



roses then because for another gathered. Yet 

 even dearer now with so many years as it were 

 upon the petals ; all the days that have been 

 before, all the heart-throbs, all our hopes lie 

 in this opened bud. Let not the eyes grow 

 dim, look not back but forward ; the soul 

 must uphold itself like the sun. Let us 

 labour to make the heart grow larger as we 

 become older, as the spreading oak gives more 

 shelter. That we could but take to the soul 

 some of the greatness and the beauty of the 

 summer ! 



" I cannot leave it ; I must stay under the 

 old tree in the midst of the long grass, the 

 luxury of the leaves, and the song in the very 

 air. I seem as if I could feel all the glowing 

 life the sunshine gives and the south wind calls 

 to being. The endless grass, the endless 

 leaves, the immense strength of the oak ex- 

 panding, the unalloyed joy of finch and black- 

 bird ; from all of them I receive a little. Each 

 gives me something of the pure joy they gather 

 for themselves. In the blackbird's melody 

 one note is mine ; in the dance of the leaf 

 shadows the formed maze is for me, though 



