TO
MY FARING-MATES
KATHARINE COMAN
AND
ANNIE BEECHER SCOVILLE
Daffodil and furze and wheat,
Shining paths for truant feet;
From that golden blossoming
Wilted sprays are all I bring.
You who know their fault the best,
To their fault be tenderest,
For a breath of fragrant days
Whispers you from wilted sprays.
"Some Shires, Joseph-like, have a better coloured coat than others; and some, with Benjamin, have a more bountiful mess of meat belonging to them. Yet every County hath a child's proportion."
Thomas Fuller.
These summer wanderings through the west of England were undertaken at the request of The Chautauquan, from whose pages the bulk of this material is reprinted. But the chronicle of this recent journey has been supplemented, as the text indicates, by earlier memories.
K. L. B.