THE RIVER 



back in very languor of exuberant colour, as the 

 awns, drooping over, caressed them. Poppies, 

 again, in the same fields formed a scarlet ground 

 from which the golden wheat sprang up, and 

 among it here and there shone the large blue rays 

 of wild succory. 



The paths across the corn having no hedges, the 

 wayfarer really walks among the wheat, and can 

 pluck with either hand. The ears rise above the 

 heads of children, who shout with joy as they rush 

 along as though to the arms of their mother. 



Beneath the towing-path, at the roots of the 

 willow bushes, which the tow-ropes, so often 

 drawn over them, have kept low, the water-docks 

 lift their thick stems and giant leaves. Bunches 

 of rough-leaved comfrey grow down to the water's 

 edge indeed, the coarse stems sometimes bear 

 signs of having been partially under water when a 

 freshet followed a storm. The flowers are not so 

 perfectly bell-shaped as those of some plants, but 

 are rather tubular. They appear in April, though 

 then green, and may be found all the summer 

 months. Where the comfrey grows thickly the 

 white bells give some colour to the green of the 

 bank, and would give more were they not so often 

 overshadowed by the leaves. 



Water betony, or persicaria, lifts its pink spikes 

 everywhere, tiny florets close together round the 

 149 



