Railway Birds and Flowers 139 



harmony with the heavier tones of August verdure. 

 Wild golden- rod lights up the ledges of the rocky 

 cuttings ; and on turfy shelves and nooks the 

 harebell shows that the heavier months of summer 

 can nurse a flower as delicate as any bloom of spring. 

 In the September sunshine the pale mauve of the 

 autumn scabious answers to hazier skies. Yet, for 

 sheer profusion of beauty, midsummer is the 

 supreme moment of the year among the wild 

 gardens of the railway, as it is in the hedgerows 

 and fields. Unharvested and unregarded, the June 

 grass clothing the embankment survives the day 

 of the hay-carrying that brings so great a change 

 to the face of the land around. As we look across 

 the landscape on the evening when the fields beneath 

 the railway first lie empty, only the slope of the 

 embankment seems the same. Where a week ago 

 the moon-daisies shone white over many acres, the 

 fields are now dark, yet sallow, in the twilight 

 deepening to night. The lit train thunders down 

 the grade, drawing a red-bellied coil of steam above 

 it ; but the white moths hovering above the grass 

 are undisturbed by gleam or roar in their quest of 

 the last blossoms of midsummer, respited upon 

 the confines of the line. 



