THE NIGHTJAR: OR FERN OWL. 127 



THE NIGHTJAR: OR FERN OWL. 



AN AFTERNOON WALK THE NIGHTJAR'S EGG- 

 OXSHOTT WOODS NIGHTINGALES AND 

 MAYFLIES. 



And pleasures flow so thick and fast 



Upon his heart, that he at last 

 Must needs express his love's excess 



With words of unmeant bitterness. 



COLERIDGE. 



They answer and provoke each other's song. 



COLERIDGE. 



THE scene to be recalled is that of a close 

 and somewhat misty June evening, when 

 a heavy thunder shower which is 

 popularly supposed to have settled the weather, 

 has as a matter of fact unsettled it for weeks 

 or months; when the sun, which rose in 

 unclouded splendour, is sinking behind the 

 heavily dripping fir trees, and is half obscured 

 by the exhalations from a swampy heath and 

 an overheated soil; when all the birds, who 

 have remained mute and motionless while the 

 thunder rolled among the hills and the rain 

 flashed down like bayonets, have once more 

 come forth from their hiding places, as though 

 resolved to attend vespers together, and to 



