Undine and our sylvan world; sixteen nature sketches . express, with a few exceptions, all thedelights that the average man takes ina summers path. For I have loved the rural walk through lanesOf grassy swarth, close cropped by nibbling sheepAnd skirted thick with intertexture firmOf thorny boughs; have loved the rural walkOer hills, through valleys, and by rivers brink,Eer since a truant boy I passed my boundsTo enjoy a ramble on the banks of Thames; Many of us have known what arural walk like that means to a truantschoolboy. He only needs to havegone over one hill and perhaps downinto one va
Undine and our sylvan world; sixteen nature sketches . express, with a few exceptions, all thedelights that the average man takes ina summers path. For I have loved the rural walk through lanesOf grassy swarth, close cropped by nibbling sheepAnd skirted thick with intertexture firmOf thorny boughs; have loved the rural walkOer hills, through valleys, and by rivers brink,Eer since a truant boy I passed my boundsTo enjoy a ramble on the banks of Thames; Many of us have known what arural walk like that means to a truantschoolboy. He only needs to havegone over one hill and perhaps downinto one valley before he has entirelyforgotten the book and the ferule. At the height of his happiness whenhe turns a green lane and his fathersiezes him by the collar, the hard bonyhand or a good willow stick interruptsthe Elysian dream of the rambler, and-84-. the song of birds and the tinkle of thebell on the cow and the humming ofthe honey bee or insect and the riverand the flowers, all fly away and thealmost bare walls of the school roomand the ugly black boards and figuresand uninteresting books take theirplace. That is the way the truant boyfinds it~the way Cowper found it. Next to the piscatorial pastime of theIsaac Walton type there is nothing likea rural walk oer the hills throughvalleys and by rivers brink, for themature man as well as the truant boy. If you go free fi-om care and dutyyou will not only get much food forhealthy thought but an unconsciousconstitutional as well. You can goalone as Stevenson advises, you cantake a child with you, you can go with-85-
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidundineoursyl, bookyear1906
