THE SKY-LAEK. 75 



sensation of freshness without coldness. Away we 

 tripped across the fields that crown the summit of 

 Byng Cljff, treading on a soft and painted carpet of 

 daisies and huttercups, pimpernel, clover and dandelion. 

 The suburbs and villas looked attractive in their 

 howery groves, just flushed with green. Cockchafers, 

 with loud buzzings, were "wheeling their drony flight" 

 round the brambles of the hedgerows, and Larks were 

 singing by scores in the dazzling sky, now and then 

 dropping to hover over the grass a moment, before they 

 sank in. A sweet picture of innocent happiness does 

 this bird present ; he pours out his heart in thrilling 

 song far above the world in the full beams of the 

 bright sun, and then sinks to repose in his humble 

 nest, where the embrace of love welcomes him, and 

 his infant progeny call forth all his fondness and all 

 his joy ! 



Hark to that little snatch of a song ! I thought it 

 at first some lad at work, whistling " for want of 

 thought", so full and mellow are the notes: but no ; it 

 is a Starling in yonder cage. He repeats this bar 

 every two minutes or so, with an interval jof silence 

 between. Flocks of Starlings circle round the fields, 

 not yet reduced to slavery and the cage ; and there 

 the Poke-pudding flits by, trailing after him his more 

 than suf&cient longitude of tail. 



We get into a lane, deeply cut up with ruts, and 

 reduced in its narrow dimensions by heaps of rotting 

 sea-grass bordering each side, on which we have to 

 mount to allow the manure-cart to pass. The carter- 

 lad, not unmindful of the elegancies of life, amidst his 

 somewhat sordid employment, has decked the head 



