The way I followed took me through many fields thus occupied, and
through many strips of plantation, and then over a little space of
smooth turf, very pleasant to the feet, set with tall fir-trees and
clamorous with rooks making ready for the winter, and so back again
into the quiet road. I was now not far from the end of my day's
journey. A few hundred yards farther, and, passing through a gap in
the hedge, I began to go down hill through a pretty extensive tract
of young beeches. I was soon in shadow myself, but the afternoon sun
still coloured the upmost boughs of the wood, and made a fire over my
head in the autumnal foliage. A little faint vapour lay among the
slim tree-stems in the bottom of the hollow; and from farther up I
heard from time to time an outburst of gross laughter, as though
clowns were making merry in the bush. There was something about the
atmosphere that brought all sights and sounds home to one with a
singular purity, so that I felt as if my senses had been washed with
water. After I had crossed the little zone of mist, the path began
to remount the hill; and just as I, mounting along with it, had got
back again, from the head downwards, into the thin golden sunshine, I
saw in front of me a donkey tied to a tree.
Pages:
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165