FOOTPATHS 



of innumerable items of grass blade and flower, 

 each in itself coloured and different from its neigh- 

 bour. Not one of these must be slurred over if 

 you wish to get the same effect. 



Then there are drifting specks of colour which 

 cannot be fixed. Butterflies, white, parti-coloured, 

 brown, and spotted, and light blue flutter along 

 beside the footpath ; two white ones wheel about 

 each other, rising higher at every turn till they 

 are lost and no more to be distinguished against 

 a shining white cloud. Large dark humble-bees 

 roam slowly, and honey bees with more decided 

 flight. Glistening beetles, green and gold, run 

 across the bare earth of the path, coming from one 

 crack in the dry ground and disappearing in the 

 (to them) mighty chasm of another. 



Tiny green " hoppers" odd creatures shaped 

 something like the fancy frogs of children's story- 

 books alight upon it after a spring, and pausing 

 a second, with another toss themselves as high as 

 the highest bennet (veritable elm trees by com- 

 parison), to fall anywhere out of sight in the grass. 

 Reddish ants hurry over. Time is money ; and 

 their business brooks no delay. 



Bee-like flies of many stripes and parti-coloured 

 robes face you, suspended in the air with wings 

 vibrating so swiftly as to be unseen ; then suddenly 

 jerk themselves a few yards, to recommence hover- 



