XIV 

 JULY 



THE BED OF SWEET ODOURS 



July 2. I think it was Jefferies who said, "The 

 sowing of life in the springtime is not in the set 

 straight line of the drill." Surely every one must 

 realize this, who lives close to Nature and watches 

 her mobility, for the incoming of growth envelops 

 both the cultivated and the wild garden of the field 

 and wood like the returning tide that first creeps 

 wildly hither and thither, covering the open flats, and 

 merely curling about the higher places, until finally 

 gathering sudden force, every bar and promontory is 

 suddenly submerged by the wave of colour, so that 

 we scarcely realize that the tide is high until it is 

 well-nigh ready to ebb again. 



To-day for the first time in a month I have sat 

 under the Mother Tree, with folded hands, passively 

 drinking in the beauty of my garden without feeling 

 spurred to do so much as tie up a vine. The last bit 

 of summer sowing is over, the planting of the third 

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