word Home will have only a special significance; indicating the mon abode of retired labourers who are drawing old…age pensions。
XVIII
I cannot close my eyes upon this day without setting down some record of it; yet the foolish insufficiency of words! At sunrise I looked forth; nowhere could I discern a cloud the size of a man's hand; the leaves quivered gently; as if with joy in the divine morning which glistened upon their dew。 At sunset I stood in the meadow above my house; and watched the red orb sink into purple mist; whilst in the violet heaven behind me rose the perfect moon。 All between; through the soft circling of the dial's shadow; was loveliness and quiet unutterable。 Never; I could fancy; did autumn clothe in such magnificence the elms and beeches; never; I should think; did the leafage on my walls blaze in such royal crimson。 It was no day for wandering; under a canopy of blue or gold; where the eye could fall on nothing that was not beautiful; enough to be at one with Nature in dreamy rest。 From stubble fields sounded the long caw of rooks; a sleepy crowing ever and anon told of the neighbour farm; my doves cooed above their cot。 Was it for five minutes; or was it for an hour; that I watched the yellow butterfly wafted as by an insensible tremor of the air amid the garden glintings? In every autumn there es one such flawless day。 None that I have known brought me a mind so touched to the fitting mood of wele; and so fulfilled the promise of it