n of them was dull and blueish, as
though she had been through a long time of pain. Save for her rapid
breathing, she lay quite still, but her neck and ears were streaked with
sweat, and every now and then her hind-legs quivered. Seeing me at the
door, she raised her head, uttering a queer, half-human noise; but the
bearded man at once put his hand on her forehead, and with a "Woa, my
dear, woa, my pretty!" pressed it down again, while with the other hand
he plumped up the pillow for her cheek. And, as the mare obediently let
fall her head, one of the men said in a low voice: "I never see anything
so like a Christian!" and the others echoed him, in chorus, "Like a
Christian--like a Christian!" It went to one's heart to watch her, and I
moved off down the farm lane into an old orchard, where the apple-trees
were still in bloom, with bees--very small ones--busy on the blossoms,
whose petals were dropping on to the dock leaves and buttercups in the
long grass. Climbing over the bank at the far end, I found myself in a
meadow the like of which--so wild and yet so lush--I think I have never
seen. Along one hedge of its meandering length were masses of pink
mayflower; and between two little running streams quantities of yellow
water iris--"daggers," as they call them--were growing; the
"print-frock" orchis, too, was all over the grass, and everywhere the
buttercups. Great stones coated with yellowish moss were strewn among
the ash-trees and dark hollies; and through a grove of beeches on the
far side, such as Corot might have painted, a girl was running with a
youth after her, who jumped down over the bank and vanished. Thrushes,
blackbirds, yaffles, cuckoos, and one other very monotonous little bird
were in full song; and this, with the sound of the streams, and the
wind, and the shapes of the rocks and trees, the colours of the flowers,
and the warmth of the sun, gave one a feeling of being lost in a very
wilderness of Nature. Some ponies came slowly from the far end, tangled,
gipsy-headed little creatures, stared, and went off again at speed. It
was just one of those places where any day the Spirit of all Nature
might start up in one of those white gaps which separate the trees and
rocks. But though I sat a long time waiting, hoping--Pan did not come.

They were all gone from the stable, when I went back to the farm, except
the bearded nurse, and one tall fellow, who might have been the "Dying
Gaul," as he crouched there in