TIMES AND SEASONS. 



reflected perfectly in the shallow water in which 

 he is standing. 



But presently the spell is broken; the almost 

 oppressive silence and stillness are interrupted ; the 

 eastern clouds have been waxing more and more 

 ruddy, and the sky has been bathed in golden 

 light ever becoming more lustrous. Now the sea 

 reflects in dazzling splendour the risen sun ; nature 

 awakes ; lines of ruffling ripple run across the lake 

 from the airs which are beginning to breathe 

 down the glen ; the solemn stillness which weighed 

 upon the woods is dissipated ; the lowing of cattle 

 comes faintly from the distant settlements; crows 

 fly cawing overhead ; and scores of tiny throats 

 combine, each in its measure, to make a sweet 

 harmony, each warbling its song of unconscious 

 praise to its beneficent Creator. Then with what 

 delight would I haste to the lake-side, where the 

 margin was fringed with a broad belt of the yel- 

 low water-lily, whose oval leaves floating on the 

 surface almost concealed the water, while here and 

 there the golden globe itself protruded. Having 

 pulled out my insect-net from a rocky crevice in 

 which I was accustomed to hide it, I would then 

 stretch myself on the mossy bank and peer in be- 

 tween the lily leaves, under whose shadow I could 

 with ease discover the busy inhabitants of the 

 pool, and watch their various movements in the 

 crystalline water. 



The merry little boatflies are frisking about, 

 backs downwards, using their oar-like hind feet as 

 paddles ; the triple- tailed larvae of dayflies creep in 

 and out of holes in the bank, the finny appendages 

 at their sides maintaining a constant waving 

 motion ; now and then a little water-beetle peeps 

 out cautiously from the cresses, and scuttles 

 across to a neighbouring weed; the unwieldy 

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