128 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



and a long line of trees on higher ground in 

 the distance. The eastern sky above varied 

 from grey to blue-black, and against it the 

 trees positively glowed with colour that ran 

 through many shades of gold and russet red, 

 with intervals of grey. A man was ploughing 

 in the field, with a brown and a white horse, 

 and the field itself was part bright green, part 

 rich red brown. Over all rose the vast arch 

 of a brilliant rainbow. 



The woodland in winter takes on wonder- 

 fully rich colour when, in the morning or the 

 evening, there is a glow in the sky. There is 

 no such rich colour in the height of summer. 

 And even in **the light of common day," how 

 solemnly brown and purple a belt of trees will 

 look, and what a picture we get if, in the fore- 

 ground, there is, say, a potato-field, with men 

 working in it, and baskets here and there, and 

 perhaps a horseless cart, and, behind the trees, 

 distant hills. No matter if the sky be grey, it 

 is echoed by the greys in the landscape below. 



Perhaps the trees look their worst in winter 

 when there is nothing but green grass before 

 and around them, and a grey sky above. 

 Then they look black, the green of the grass 



