Life and free motion were joy and delight
enough for that happy being with her childish heart, and the serious
business of the day was all delight. There lay the rich meadows
basking in the sun, and covered with short grass just beginning its
summer growth, but with the cowslips standing high above it; hanging
down their rich clusters of soft, pure, delicately-scented bells, from
their pinky stems over their pale crinkled leaves, interspersed here
and there with the deep purple of the fool's orchis, and the pale
brown quiver-grass shaking out its trembling awns on their invisible
stems. No flower is more delightful to gather than the cowslip,
fragrant as the breath of a cow. And Aurelia darted about, piling
the golden heap in her basket with untiring enjoyment; then, producing
a tape, called on Harriet, who had been working in a more leisurely
fashion, to join her in making a cowslip ball, and charged Eugene
not to nip off the heads too short.
The sweet, soft, golden globe was made, and even Harriet felt the
delicious intoxication. The young things tossed it aloft, flung
from one to the other, caught it, caressed it, buried their faces
in it, and threw it back with shrieks of glee.
Suddenly Harriet checked her sister with a peremptory sign. She heard
horse-hoofs in the lane, divided from the field by a hedge of pollard
willows, so high that she had never thought of being overlooked, till
the cessation of the trotting sound struck her; and looking round she
saw that a horseman had halted at the gate, and was gazing at their
sports.
Pages:
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47