310 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
oe 
saw just now, are not Icft without a fringe; on the top 
of the hardest brick wall, on the sapless tiles, on slates, 
stonecrop takes hold and becomes a cushion of yellow 
bloom. Nature is a miniature painter and handles 
a delicate brush, the tip of which touches the tiniest 
spot and leaves something living. The park has indeed 
its larger lines, its broad open sweep, and gradual slope, 
to which the eye accustomed to small inclosures requires 
time to adjust itself. These left to themselves are 
beautiful; they are the surface of the earth, which is 
always true to itself and needs no banks nor artificial 
hollows. The earth is right and the tree is right: trim 
either and all is wrong. The deer will not fit to them then. 
The squire came near enough to the corn-field to sce 
that the wheat-ears were beginning to turn yellow and 
that the barley had the silky appearance caused by the 
beard, the delicate lines of which divide the light and 
reflect it like gossamer. At some distance a man was 
approaching ; he saw him, and sat down on the grass 
under an oak to await the coming of Ettles the keeper. 
Ettles had been his rounds and had visited the outlying 
copses, which are the especial haunts of pheasants. 
Like the deer, pheasants, if they can, will get away from 
the main wood. He was now returning, and the squire, 
well knowing that he would pass this way, had purposely 
crossed his path to meet him. The dogs ran to the 
squire and at once made friends withhim. Ettles, whose 
cheek was the colour of the oak-apples in spring, was 
more respectful : he stood till the squire motioned him 
to sit down. The dogs rolled on the sward, but; though 
in the shadow, they could not extend themselves suffi- 
ciently nor pant fast enough. Yonder the breeze that 
came up over the forest on its way to the downs blew 
through the group of trees on the knoll, cooling the 
deer as it passed. 
