i 9 8 AUGUST 



coming. Yet its growth was hardly more sudden than 

 the sprouting of seeds shaken from early flowers. 

 When the wheat was cut and bound and piled in stooks 

 the ground looked too barren and dusty to bear any 

 plant more tender than the camomile or bindweed. 

 Within a trice it grew green with patches of unknown 

 seedlings. A tired summer was converted into an ener 

 getic spring. A few days later the seed leaves gave way 

 to more distinctive marks, and the young poppies 

 declared themselves. How quickly they can germinate 

 and how very long lie dormant ! The double border 

 seems to belong especially to grain-field weeds. It is 

 certainly common to the red poppy and yellow charlock 

 and white yarrow and pink fumitory. This year, to the 

 satisfaction of the farmer, the ploughs will bury in rare 

 quantity these premature children of the spring. 



3- 



One very hot day in August some of us went down to 

 the village bathing place ; and in spite of its popularity 

 of late for bathing is a more or less new amusement 

 among the village youth it remains one of the richest 

 bits of riverside scenery. It had escaped any naturalist s 

 notice, though lying close to a most familiar and precious 

 reach ; and perhaps the most indigenous folk, so discover 

 to their astonished shame that they have missed gems 

 and treasures lying within the very pale of their daily 

 migrations. This patch of marsh and river, divided by a 

 firm bank and dry walk, reveals all the reasons why we 

 seek water river if it may not be sea when the summer 

 bares the tilth and browns the meadows. 



By the river all the qualities of summer, if not of spring 

 itself, are still at their highest pitch. Birds sing ; or at 



