114 THE LARK 



roasted a leg of mutton as well as we could in the 

 open air. 



One evenino", 1 decided on spending the whole night 

 in the same quarters and 1 settled myself comfortably 

 in a hammoclv , suspended on the cross-beams of the 

 thatched roof of our rustic dining-room. I fell asleep abont 

 eleven o'clock. The night was deliciously warm, embalmed 

 by the scent of pines ; across the murmuring branches my 

 sleepy eyes could yet distinguish the golden stars twinkling 

 in the sky above my head ; my sleeping-chamber was 

 exceedingly comfortable and I slept soundly all night 

 through, until the first faint glimmer of dawn. The fresh- 

 ness which always falls in woods at sunrise having awaked 

 me, I jumped out of my hammock and began to walk about, 

 so as to restore suppleness to my benumbed members. 



The coppice was yet silent. Fine drops of pearly dew 

 were hanging on the leaves and the blades of grass, so 

 that the gossamer threads between the brambles seemed 

 to be covered with diamonds. When I reached the ex- 

 tremity of the wood, I was suddenly cheered by a joyous 

 strain which seemed to drop from the pearl-gray sky. On 

 the whole extent of the plain which lay waving before me, 

 hundreds of larks were taking their flight from among 

 the barley and oat fields, rising in short windings and 

 soaring upwards towards the blue, slightly shaded sky. 

 I could see their small brown bodies rising whilst they 

 were iluttering in their aerial ascension ; then suddenly 



