280 SUMMER.- 



dark lug sails, as they return from the deep sea fishing, 

 project their streaky shadows for miles, though each 

 seems but a speck. The lands on the opposite sides of 

 the estuary pay their morning salutations, in soft breezes 

 wafted across, as the sun touches a point of the one 

 here, and of the other there ; for the summer sun no 

 sooner beams out upon one part of the landscape than 

 the little Zephyr from all the others hasten thither to 

 worship, so instantly does the genial beam put the 

 atmosphere in motion ; and as those Zephyrs come from 

 more moist places, there is absolutely dew upon the 

 parched heights at sun-rise, if they be not too extensive. 

 Those cross winds rippling the water this way and that 

 way, give an opal play to the whole; while behind 

 you, if the estuary stretches that way, it passes into a 

 deep blue, as from the small angle at which the rays 

 fall, they are all reflected forward ; and the very same 

 cause that makes the water so brilliant before you, 

 gives it that deep tint in your rear. By and by, the 

 trees and buildings in lateral positions come out, with 

 a line of golden light on their eastern sides ; while to 

 the west every pane in the windows beams and blazes 

 like a beacon-fire. The fogs, too, melt away, except 

 a few trailing fleeces, over the streams and lakes that lie 

 sheltered beneath steep or wooded banks ; and they 

 soon fade from these also, and the mingled fields, 

 and woods, and streams, are all arrayed in green and 

 gold. The cottage smokes begin to twine upward in 

 their blue volumes ; the sheep are unfolded ; the 

 cattle sent to their pastures ; and people begin the 

 labour of the fields. The wild bees and butterflies 

 also come out upon the flowers ; the birds fly to their 



