2 



MEADOW SAFFRON. 



f) HE country in winch my young 

 ^^ days passed was beautifully va- 

 ried with wooded glens, with 

 quiet valleys, and commons open to the sun, 

 where the cistus and the wild thyme mingled 

 their beauty and their fragrance. But in all 

 and each, you might see a streamlet flashing 

 and eddying in the sunbeams, or hear the 

 pleasant sound of falling waters : some flowed 

 silently adown the meadow banks, and either 

 wasted themselves among the grass, or went 

 on their noiseless way ; others leaped and 

 danced over a pebbly bed, clear, rapid, and 

 transparent ; others again rushed forth from 

 out some stony bank and formed small cas- 

 cades, beside which the bulrush grew, ^vith 

 long tufts of pendant ferns, and the adders- 



