THE WONDERS OF THE SUMMER. 99 



more and more fitful as night steals back 

 again. Then is the season for another class of 

 creatures to bestir themselves. The various 

 animals the mice and rats, the hedgehogs, stoats, 

 weasels, otters, hares, and rabbits, are all fond of 

 the night, and delay their gambols until dusk. 

 You may hear them on every side, frolicking with 

 each other, marauding after prey, bold yet timid, 

 venturesome yet shy. 



Then, with approaching darkness, the Nightjar 

 steals forth, and the Landrail grates his music 

 from the meadows. All night long the plaintive 

 Nightingales hold their concert, and Reed War- 

 blers and Sedge Birds warble fitfully from the 

 vegetation near the stream. They seem too rest- 

 less to sleep. The comparative stillness of the 

 woods, the fragrance cast off by sleeping trees 

 and flowers ; the scent of hay, and lime, and 

 meadow-sweet, the freshness and coolness after 

 the noonday heat, make nights of midsummer 

 deliciously sweet and soothing. You may sit and 

 muse in the woods for hours together on such 

 nights as these sit and ponder over the mys- 

 teries of the life, waking and sleeping, everywhere 

 around you ; and when gazing up into the starry 

 sky, across which the summer meteors flash 

 at intervals, your thoughts may well embrace 

 the higher questions still the presence of other 

 beings far out yonder in the spangled firmament ; 

 the Universality of Life away from our own small 

 yet glorious planet, which circles through that 

 space, on which we live and move, and have our 



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