JULY 



27 



But when vivid color is wanted, what can surpass 

 or equal our cardinal-flower? There is a glow 

 about this flower as if color emanated from it as 

 from a live coal. The eye is baffled, and does not 

 seem to reach the surface of the petal ; it does not 

 see the texture or material part as it does in other 

 flowers, but rests in a steady, still radiance. It is 

 not so much something colored as it is color itself. 

 And then the moist, cool, shady places it affects, 

 usually where it has no floral rivals, and where 

 the large, dark shadows need just such a dab of 

 fire ! Often, too, we see it double, its reflected 

 image in some dark pool heightening its effect. 



BURROUGHS: Riverby. 



28 



As the light is obscured after sunset, the birds 

 rapidly cease their songs, and the swallows cease 

 to flit over the river. Soon the bats are seen tak- 

 ing the places of the swallows, and flying back and 

 forth like them, and commonly a late kingbird 

 will be heard twittering still in the air. After the 

 bats, or half an hour after sunset, the water bugs 

 begin to spread themselves over the stream (though 

 fifteen minutes earlier not one was seen without 

 the pads), now when it is difficult to see them or 

 the dimples they make, except you look toward the 



reflected western sky. 



THOREAU: Summer. 



