THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



and dispositions. They all scour the pastures in the 

 same way, scattering, searching out every nook and 

 comer, leaving no yard of groimd unvisited, appar- 

 ently hunting each day for the sweet morsel they 

 missed the day before, disposing themselves in pic- 

 turesque groups upon the hills; never massed, except 

 under the shade-trees on hot days; slow-moving, 

 making their paths here and there, lingering imder 

 the red thorn trees, where the fruit begins to drop 

 in September; tossing their heads above the orchard 

 wall, where the fragrance of ripening apples is on 

 the air; in the autumn lying upon the cold, damp 

 ground and ruminating contentedly, with no fear 

 of our ills and pains before them; wading in the 

 swamps, converging slowly toward the pasture- 

 bars as milking-time draws nigh, with always some 

 tardy, indifferent ones that the farm-dog has to 

 hurry up; many-colored, — white, black, red, 

 brown, — at times showing rare gentleness and 

 affection toward one another, such as licking one 

 another's heads or bodies, then spitefully butting 

 or goring one another; occasionally one of them lift- 

 ing up her head and sending her mellow voice over 

 the hills like a horn, as if to give voice to a vagu6 

 unrest, or invoking some far-off divinity to release 

 the imprisoned lo — what a series of shifting rural 

 pictures I thus have spread out before me! Such an 

 atmosphere of peace and leisure over it all! The 

 unhurrying and ruminating cattle make the days 

 32 



