Egg-time. 59 



semi-cylinders almost large enough for a canoe. But 

 that from the branches is best. You may mark how 

 at the base the bark is two inches thick, lessening to 

 a few lines on the topmost boughs. If it sticks a 

 little, hammer it with the iron : it peels with a pecu- 

 liar sound, and the juicy sap glistens white between. 

 It is this that, drying in the sun, gives the barked 

 tree its colour : in time the wood bleaches paler, and 

 after a winter becomes grey. Inside, the bark is 

 white streaked with brown ; presently it will be all 

 brown. While some strip it, others collect the pieces, 

 and with them build toy-like sheds of bark, which is 

 the manner of stacking it. 



From the peeled tree there rises a sweet odour of 

 sap : the green mead, the green undenvood and haw- 

 thorn around, are all lit up with the genial sunbeams. 

 The beautiful wind-anemones are gone, too tender and 

 lovely for so rude an earth ; but the wild hyacinths 

 droop their blue bells under the wood, and the cow- 

 slips rise in the grass. The nightingale sings without 

 ceasing ; the soft ' coo-coo ' of the dove sounds hard 

 by ; the merry cuckoo calls as he flies from elm to 

 elm ; the wood-pigeons rise and smite their wings 

 together over the firs. In the mere below the coots 

 are at play ; they chase each other along the surface 

 of the water and indulge in wild evolutions. Every- 



