THE LAP OF PROSERPINE 127 



and the blue bugle shines over the grave of moschatel. 

 Another modest little lovely thing is the long-stalked 

 geranium — rare in some districts, common here. Its 

 twin blossoms nod above cut leaves, and it abides 

 with more familiar kinsmen in the hedge, or shares 

 the lowest place with the marsh cudweed and knot- 

 weed and bartsia, the plantains and persicarias, the 

 tiny field madder and pearlwort, at the feet of the 

 great burdock, the goose-foot, and other giants of 

 the ditch. Now wild thyme and sweet marjoram 

 bloom ; there are mints, too, putting forth lavender 

 or pink blossoms by the way and in the water ; while 

 clown's heal-all also stands with his feet in the damp 

 for choice, and adorns the pond-margin, together with 

 hemp agrimony and marsh horse-tail, valerian, and 

 ragged-robin. The trefoils and clovers are seeding, 

 the iris has strange leaden-coloured blooms scattered 

 amongst its swords, and the creeping thistle blossoms 

 where the boys have suffered him to reach perfection. 

 But his arrogant carriage is a challenge that few young- 

 sters can pass unanswered ; so the more distinguished 

 thistles keep out of lanes and flourish best in wild 

 desert places of less danger and difficulty. 



Under the deepening green, small feathered things 

 sit close and compare notes as to how the world 

 strikes them ; they peer and peer and flutter and 

 tumble about — a constant anxiety to their parents. I 

 love to see Dame Nature keeping her infant school, 

 for there is something in young birds beyond the 

 inevitable implanted instinct. The differences of their 



