CHAPTER IV 



MAY MUSES 

 By the Stream 



DESPITE the increased necessity for toil 

 when the Maytide upheaval of animal and 

 vegetable life is in progress, even then the 

 spare hour arrives, though possibly but once a 

 week, and one's natural instinct is that it be 

 spent in Nature's wild garden, to recruit ex- 

 hausted powers in the fields or by the stream. 

 In the fields there is not much provision for rest : 

 " mows " are strictly preserved ; " ploughs " are, to 

 say the least, uncomfortable ; and meditations in 

 pastures may be interrupted by inquiring cattle. 

 Beside the brook may be found greater means 

 to contentment. Here may Labour rest his weary 



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