Sprays, projecting
them beyond the turf, as to form a close band or rope of
orange-yellow, which divided the white road from the green
turf, and at one spot extended unbroken for upwards of a mile.
The effect was so singular and pretty that I had haunted this
road for days for the pleasure of seeing that flower border
made by nature. Now all colour was extinguished: beneath and
around me there was a dimness which at a few yards' distance
deepened to blackness, and above me the pale dim blue sky
sprinkled with stars; but as I walked I had the image of that
brilliant band of yellow colour in my mind.
By and by the late moon rose, and a little later the east
began to grow lighter and the dark down to change
imperceptibly to dim hoary green. Then the exquisite colours
of the dawn once more, and the larks rising in the dim
distance - a beautiful unearthly sound - and so in the end I
came to "The Stones," rejoicing, in spite of a cloud which now
appeared on the eastern horizon to prevent the coming sun from
being seen, that I had the place to myself. The rejoicing
came a little too soon; a very few minutes later other
visitors on foot and on bicycles began to come in, and we all
looked at each other a little blankly. Then a motorcar
arrived, and two gentlemen stepped out and stared at us, and
one suddenly burst out laughing.
"I see nothing to laugh at!" said his companion a little
severely.
The other in a low voice made some apology or explanation
which I failed to catch. It was, of course, not right; it was
indecent to laugh on such an occasion, for we were not of the
ebullient sort who go to "The Stones" at three o'clock in the
morning "for a lark"; but it was very natural in the
circumstances, and mentally I laughed myself at the absurdity
of the situation. However, the laugher had been rebuked for
his levity, and this incident over, there was nothing further
to disturb me or any one in our solemn little gathering.
It was a very sweet experience, and I cannot say that my early
morning outing would have been equally good at any other
lonely spot on Salisbury Plain or anywhere else with a wide
starry sky above me, the flush of dawn in the east, and the
larks rising heavenward out of the dim misty earth. Those
rudely fashioned immemorial stones standing dark and large
against the pale clear moonlit sky imparted something to the
feeling. I sat among them alone and had them all to myself,
as the others, fearing to tear their clothes on the barbed
wire, had not ventured to follow me when I got through the
fence.
