horror of great fear. The sleek cattle, knee deep in pasture,
massed at the gate, and stared mild-eyed and with inquiring bellow
at the retreating drove; but these passed without answer on to the
Unknown, and for them it spelt death.

Behind a squadron of sleek, well-fed cart-horses, formed in fours,
with straw braid in mane and tail, came the ponies, for the most
part a merry company. Long strings of rusty, shaggy two-year-olds,
unbroken, unkempt, the short Down grass still sweet on their
tongues; full of fun, frolic, and wickedness, biting and pulling,
casting longing eyes at the hedgerows. The boys appear to
recognise them as kindred spirits, and are curiously forbearing and
patient. Soon both ponies and boys vanish in a white whirl, and a
long line of carts, which had evidently waited for the dust to
subside, comes slowly up the incline. For the most part they carry
the pigs and fowls, carriage folk of the road. The latter are hot,
crowded, and dusty under the open netting; the former for the most
part cheerfully remonstrative.

I drew a breath of relief as the noise of wheels died away and my
road sank into silence. The hedgerows are no longer green but
white and choked with dust, a sight to move good sister Rain to
welcome tears. The birds seem to have fled before the noisy
confusion. I wonder whether my snake has seen and smiled at the
clumsy ruling of the lord he so little heeds? I turned aside
through the gate to plunge face and hands into the cool of the
sheltered grass that side the hedge, and then rested my eyes on the
stretch of green I had lacked all day. The rabbits had apparently
played and browsed unmindful of the stir, and were still flirting
their white tails along the hedgerows; a lark rose, another and