lo The Amateur Poaxher 



in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other 

 hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the 

 prairie with the backwoods close by. 



The rabbits had scratched the yellow sand right 

 out into the grass — it is always very much brighter in 

 colour where they have just been at work — and the 

 fern, already almost yellow too, shaded the mouths of 

 their buries. Thick bramble bushes grew out from 

 the mound and filled the space between it and the 

 elm : there were a few late flowers on them still, but 

 the rest were hardening into red sour berries. West- 

 wards, the afternoon sun, with all his autumn heat, 

 shone full against the hedge and into the recess, and 

 there was not the shadow of a leaf for shelter on that 

 side. 



The gun was on the turf, and the little hoppers 

 kept jumping out of the grass on to the stock : once 

 their king, a grasshopper, alighted on it and rested, 

 his green limbs tipped with red rising above his 

 back. About the distant wood and the hills there 

 was a soft faint haze, which is what Nature finishes 

 her pictures with. Something in the atmosphere 

 which made it almost visible : all the trees seemed to 

 stand in a liquid light — the sunbeams were suspended 

 in the air instead of passing through. The butterflies 

 even were very idle in the slumberous warmth ; and 



