8 TBE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



of money his mighty arms had torn from the sun in 

 the burning hours of work. Dolly was ill at home ; 

 sometimes in her room, sometimes downstairs ; but ill, 

 shaky and weak ague they called it. There were 

 dark circles round her eyes, her chin drooped to her 

 breast ; she wrapped herself in a shawl in all the heat. 

 It was some time before even the necessity of working 

 brought her forth again, and then her manner was 

 hurried and furtive ; she would begin trembling all of 

 a minute, and her eyes filled quickly. 



By degrees the autumn advanced, and the rooks 

 followed the ploughman. Dolly gradually recovered 

 something of her physical buoyancy ; her former light- 

 heartedness never returned. Sometimes an incident 

 would cause a flash of the old gaiety, only for her to 

 sink back into subdued quietness. The change was 

 most noticeable in her eyes; soft and tender still, 

 brown and velvety, there was a deep sadness in them 

 the longer she looked at you, the more it was visible. 

 They seemed as if her spirit had suffered some great 

 wrong ; too great for redress, and that could only be 

 borne in silence. 



How beautiful are beautiful eyes! Not from one 

 aspect only, as a picture is, where the light falls rightly 

 on it the painter's point of view they vary to every 

 and any aspect. The orb rolls to meet the changing 

 circumstance, and is adjusted to all. But a little 

 enquiry into the mechanism of the eyes will indicate 

 how wondrously they are formed. Science has dis- 

 pelled many illusions, broken many dreams ; but here, 

 in the investigation of the eye, it has added to our 

 marvelling interest The eye is still like the work of 



