The Way I Followed Took Me Through Many Fields Thus
Occupied, And Through Many Strips Of Plantation, And Then Over
A
little space of smooth turf, very pleasant to the feet, set with
tall fir-trees and clamorous with rooks
Making ready for the
winter, and so back again into the quiet road. I was now not far
from the end of my day's journey. A few hundred yards farther,
and, passing through a gap in the hedge, I began to go down hill
through a pretty extensive tract of young beeches. I was soon in
shadow myself, but the afternoon sun still coloured the upmost
boughs of the wood, and made a fire over my head in the autumnal
foliage. A little faint vapour lay among the slim tree-stems in
the bottom of the hollow; and from farther up I heard from time to
time an outburst of gross laughter, as though clowns were making
merry in the bush. There was something about the atmosphere that
brought all sights and sounds home to one with a singular purity,
so that I felt as if my senses had been washed with water. After I
had crossed the little zone of mist, the path began to remount the
hill; and just as I, mounting along with it, had got back again,
from the head downwards, into the thin golden sunshine, I saw in
front of me a donkey tied to a tree. Now, I have a certain liking
for donkeys, principally, I believe, because of the delightful
things that Sterne has written of them.
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