Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: XIII On further slopes we saw the bright scythes gleam, But in the meadow where we stood that day The four-horse wagons took the gathered hay From fragrant windrows by the willowy stream. Far off we heard, as in a waking dream, Faint voices lifted where the labor lay By distant barns, and now and then the neigh Of colts at pasture calling to the team. But when we saw the sudden-coming rain, We climbed atop the homeward-going load And marked in evening skies-the arched bow, As on the hay we laughed and jolting rode Adown the windings of the orchard lane Brushed by the cherry branches bending low. Upon the porch vine-shadows touched our feet; Across the rich fields of the level plain A breeze, precursor of the summer rain, Chased the gold billows o'er the sea of wheat. The dazzling air, a-tremble with the heat, Grew calm and blue in all the dells again; And to the umbrage of the trees the swain Drove the white flock within the cool retreat. The fox-grape clambering o'er the oaken limb, Swayed to and fro in many a green festoon, And on the rolling lawn in sun-flecked urns The fitful zephyr swayed each plume of ferns, While rows of hollyhocks, like maidens slim, Bowed to each other in the sun of June. How well we loved, in Summer solitude To stroll on lonely ridges far away, Where beeches, with their boles of Quaker gray, Murmured at times a sylvan interlude ! We heard each songster warble near her brood, And from the lowland where the mowers lay Came now and then faint fragrance from the hay, That touched the heart to reminiscent mood. We peered down wooded steeps, and saw the sun Shining in front, tip all the grape-vines wild, And edge with light the boulders' lichened groups ; While, deep within the gorge, the tinkling run Coiled throug...