I /heat from Green to Yellow 117 



devoted to the honey — great broad milk-tins full to the 

 brim of the translucent liquid, distilling slowly from pure 

 white comb, from the top of whose cells the waxen cover- 

 ing has been removed. 



All the summer through fresh beauties, indeed, wait 

 upon the owner's footsteps. In the spring the mowing- 

 grass rises thick, strong, and richly green, or hidden by 

 the cloth-of-gold thrown over it by the buttercups. He 

 knows when it is ready for the scythe without reference to 

 the almanac, because of the brown tint which spreads over 

 it from the ripening seeds, sometimes tinged with a dull 

 red, when the stems of the sorrel are plentiful. At first 

 the aftermath has a trace of yellow, as if it were fading ; 

 but a shower falls, and fresh green blades shoot up. Or, 

 passing from the hollow meads up on the rising slopes 

 where the plough rules the earth, what so beautiful to 

 watch as the wheat through its various phases of colour ? 



First green and succulent; then, presently, see a 

 modest ear comes forth with promise of the future. By- 

 and-by, when every stalk is tipped like a sceptre, the 

 lower stalk leaves are still green, but the stems have a 

 faint bluish tinge, and the ears are paling into yellow. 

 Next the white pollen — the bloom — shows under the warm 

 sunshine, and then the birds begin to grow busy among 

 it. They perch on the stalk itself — it is at that time 

 strong and stiff enough to uphold their weight, one on a 

 stem — but not now for mischief. You may see the sparrow 

 carry away with him caterpillars for his young upon the 

 housetop hard by ; later on, it is true, he will revel on the 

 ripe grains. 



Yesterday you came to the wheat, and found it pale 

 like this (it seems but twenty-four hours ago — it is really 

 only a little longer) ; to-day, when you look again, lo ! 



