Dinner With Diversions 



extended for the purpose, open to the sky and 

 above a little marsh where the tide makes in until 

 it has set the tall sedge grass awash beneath my 

 very feet. Certain advantages it has, moreover, 

 in that my table bears no marks of rank, no place 

 below the salt from which to crane one's neck 

 for better view. It matters not which seat you 

 choose; though in one case you may look off 

 upon the distant city, its spires slim and dehcate, 

 its windows flashing back the sun ; and more close 

 at hand a stretch of water, unrippled on such 

 evenings, save at the edge where you may see it 

 brimming faintly to a bar of richest green. Or 

 if you look off to the westward, there are mead- 

 ows outlined with stone wall and thicket, rolling 

 softly upwards to where a generous barn and 

 wood stand out against the deepening sky. 



At first you might think my stage was empty 

 and that I had come out to watch the slow pro- 

 cessional of cloud and shadows; of color that 

 brightens suddenly before it dies. And, in truth, 

 there is much to occupy me in mere shift of scene. 

 Often it is gradual, a matter of month and sea- 

 son ; a change so slow that in the day time, I have 



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