To Mountain Tarn 



pleasantly shaded and tinged, flushing the break- 

 ing waves into a delicate pink. It is then that 

 the crowd, whose instincts are in the main right, 

 seek the seaside ; it charms and exhilarates as at 

 no other time. Their demands are few, the 

 conditions elemental ; they give themselves up to 

 the simple joy of living. Once a year it is well 

 to return to nature. Mature hands splash the 

 water in the frolic of childhood. Their natural 

 history is confined to the donkeys up on the 

 dry sand, which they mount for a penny ride 

 after the cold snap of bathing to the ripple 

 of the old girlish laughter. But even donkeys 

 are part of a very delightful picture, and by no 

 means banish other forms for those who have 

 eyes to see. 



If the bird life, on the flat stretches where the 

 visitors go, is not so rich nor so varied as in 

 winter, neither is it so grave. It is bright and 

 sparkling, vivacious and sympathetic. The terns 

 mimic the bathers, but with ever so much more 

 perfect an art. They are sunlight, motion, 

 virility, joy incarnate. They dive and splash, 

 and emerge, not to shake the drops off, but with 

 the purpose which runs through all the doings of 

 wild life. For the children, how delightful a first 

 lesson in nature, to have such bright associates 

 for bathing, with whom they take dive about. 

 They may forget many things, but scarcely the 

 bright days with the terns among the August 



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