ARGUMENT.

A Summer Noon contrasted with a Summer Morning - Burners of Fern Great conflagrations occasioned by Fern Fires - Story of a Cottager- A Forest Pool-Horses and Cattle collected by itVillage Boy come in search of his Master's Cattle- Hazy Effect of Noon on remote Woods-Distant View of a Church - Reflections A Forest, though without the characteristic Grandeur and Beauty of Mountains, of Rocks, of Lakes, or of Sea-shores, has Grandeur and Beauty of its own.

THE solstice rages: Nature sinks opprest

Beneath the sultry glow. Hide me, ye woods,
Hide in your shades impenetrable; waft'

A breeze reviving from your inmost depths;
While your tall trunks between I gaze abroad

On the parch'd world, or watch the trooping deer
Safe in the covert from the scorching ray.

What though with lifted ears to every sound
They turn? They fly not me; no murderous tube
Gleams in my hand: but far aloof they shun
Him, whose green vesture and insidious gait

Mark him their authorized destroyer. Few

And short the hours since from its height the lark

Sang the first carol to approaching morn,

And broke the twilight slumber of the grove:

Yet that brief interval the clime has changed

From temperate zone to torrid. Scatter'd clouds,
With orient blush empurpled, half obscured

The ascending orb of light; gray mists, effused
O'er the wide lawn, and from the wooded hill
Dim through their skirts discern'd retiring slow,
His labouring beams restrain'd; yon reverend oaks,
Fronting the east, across the illumined vale

Stretch'd their long shadows; dewy spangles gemm'd
The grass; o'er thymy banks and opening flowers
On gelid wings a gale of fragrance mov'd.
Now from the burning firmament the sun
Each cloud has driven: with universal light
Blazing, the earth repels the dazzled eye,
Save where a lonely spot of shade lies close
Beneath some massy tree, or woods extend

Their dark recesses; the faint traveller's step

On the tann'd plain slides printless, as when frost

Has glazed the downward path; no wandering breeze

The lush'd aërial ocean moves; and fierce

As when through Indian skies it rages, heat

Cleaves the parch'd earth, and drains the ebbing stream.

Yet cannot heat's meridian rage deter

The cottage-matron from her annual toil.

On that rough bank behold her, bent to reap
The full-grown fern, her harvest, and prepare
Her ashy balls of purifying fame.

Lo, yon

bare spot she destines for the hearth;

Now strikes the steel, the tinder covers light
With wither'd leaves and dry; now stoops to fan

The glimmering sparks, and motionless remains,
Watching the infant flame from side to side

Run through the thin materials. Round her stray
Children or grandchildren, a cheerful train,
Dispersed among the bushes; earnest each
To execute the task her nod assigns,

Half sport, half labour, fit for early youth.
One plies the hook, the rake another trails;
Another, staggering, bears the verdant load
Uplifted in his arms; another hastes

Her apron's burthen to discharge. Each step

Active and prompt obedience quickens, zeal

Inspired by love; the temper of the soul

Which to the parent most endears the child,
The Christian to his God. Well-pleased the dame

Receives their tribute; part she heaps aside

In store for night, the embers to preserve

From quenching dews; part on the kindled pile
Adroit she sprinkles; duly with her fork

Then opes the sinking strata to admit

Currents of needful air; at every gale

The enliven❜d mass glows bright, and crackles loud.
Puffing from numerous chinks the smoke unfolds
Its wreathed volumes; not as when, condensed

By evening's gelid atmosphere, it creeps
Below the hill, and draws along the ground
Its lengthening train, and spreading as it rolls,
Melts in blue vapour; but aspiring shoots
Its growth columnar, and displays afar

Its broad and dusky head, to pilgrim's eye