42 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



Daniel O'Rourke filly making play for the Oaks, she is 

 gathered up for her plunge into the rapids, where the 

 sentinel salmon will be startled at her approach. 



•* Morn on the waters, and purple and bright 

 Bursts on the billows the flashing of light ; 

 O'er the glad wave, like a child of the sun. 

 See ! the tall vessel goes gallantly on. 

 « ♦ * ♦ 



** Onward she glides amidst ripple and spray 

 Over the water, aAvay and away ! 

 Bright as the visions of youth ere they part. 

 Passing away, like a dream of the heart." 



Ah ! would that all convict transports — for you will 

 recognise Hervey's lines — were empty as the punt we 

 watch ! How it relieves one to know that there is 

 nobody to mourn that vessel's flight, save her owner, 

 the old ferrywoman, who will forget herself a trifle, if 

 common rumour malign her not, as she mounts her 

 jolting donkey-cart, to try to intercept the fugitive at 

 the next turn, which, reached in twenty minutes by the 

 road, it costs the stream two hours to attain. 



And now the rapids are past, and her career is 

 tranquil as, to borrow the celebrated image of the swan 

 on Loch Leven, she " floats double, punt and shadow " 

 alonfj the smooth reach below the castle. Some small 

 boys, who are hacking firewood off a fallen apple-tree, 

 get up a cheer ; but otherwise, all is calm around as we 

 bid her adieu, and turn to think whatever we have been 

 dreaming about the last half-hour. 



My life is brought back by the crackling of a block 

 which the servant has thrown upon the fire, and the 

 painful coughing of an Angora cat upon the hearth-rug 

 — who ever heard before a sound so distempered 1 — so 



