FOOTPATHS 



the effect upon canvas. Of the million blades of 

 grass no two are of the same shade. 



Pluck a handful and spread them out side by 

 side and this is at once evident. Nor is any single 

 blade the same shade all the way up. There may 

 be a faint yellow towards the root, a full green 

 about the middle, at the tip perhaps the hot sun 

 has scorched it, and there is a trace of brown. 

 The older grass, which comes up earliest, is dis- 

 tinctly different in tint from that which has but 

 just reached its greatest height, and in which the 

 sap has not yet stood still. 



Under all there is the new grass, short, sweet, 

 and verdant, springing up fresh between the old, 

 and. giving a tone to the rest as- you look down 

 into the bunches. Some blades are nearly grey, 

 some the palest green, and among them others, 

 torn from the roots perhaps by rooks searching for 

 grubs, are quite white. The very track of a rook 

 through the grass leaves a different shade each 

 side, as the blades are bent or trampled down. 



The stalks of the bennets vary, some green, 

 some yellowish, some brown, some approaching 

 whiteness, according to age and the condition of 

 the sap. Their tops, too, are never the same, 

 whether the pollen clings to the surface or whether 

 it has gone. Here the green is almost lost in red, 

 or quite; here the grass has a soft, velvety look; 



a 17 



