How eager they were: and how their parents were happy! Immediately afterwards, in a visionary fervour, or, may be because I was very young, I wrote “London Children and Wild Flowers,” which Austin Harrison published, with Walter de la Mare as god-parent. H. W. SKIRR COTTAGE, _11th November, 1921_. CONTENTS PAGE THE LONE SWALLOWS 1 LADY DAY IN DEVON 8 THE INCOMING OF SUMMER 14 HAUNT OF THE EVEJAR 30 A DESERTED QUARRY IN FEBRUARY 39 VIGNETTES OF NATURE (i) 41 VIGNETTES OF NATURE (ii) 43 HAWK NOTES 46 PROPHET BIRDS 50 A BIRD MYSTIC 53 SAMARITANS 57 SPORTSMEN OF THE RUBBISH-HEAPS 60 RUNAWAYS 65 LONDON CHILDREN AND WILD FLOWERS 68 MEADOW GRASSES 82 TIGER’S TEETH 96 THE OUTLAW 116 PEREGRINES IN LOVE 130 MIDSUMMER NIGHT 136 A FEATHERED WASTER 145 INVOCATION 150 COCKNEY BIRD TRIPPERS 154 “FULLNESS AFTER DEARTH” 157 CUCKOO NOTES 160 DAYS OF AUTUMN 166 SWALLOW BROW: _A FANTASY_ 182 WINTER’S EVE 196 ERNIE 204 A SEED IN WASTE PLACES 212 THE CHANGE: _A FANTASY_ 217 PROSERPINE’S MESSAGE 236 STRIX FLAMMEA 243 THE LONE SWALLOWS Along the trackless and uncharted airlines from the southern sun they came, a lone pair of swallows, arriving with weakly and uncertain flight from over the wastes of the sea. They rested on a gorse bush, their blue backs beautiful against the store of golden blossom guarded by the jade spikes. The last day of March had just blown with the wind into eternity. Symbols of summer and of loveliness, they came with young April, while yet the celandines were unbleached, while the wild white strawberry and ragged-robin were opening with the dog violet. On the headland the flowers struggle for both life and livelihood, the sward is cropped close by generations of sheep, and the sea-wind is damp and cold. Perhaps the swallows hoped to nest, as their ancestors had done centuries since, in the cave under the precipice at the headland’s snout, or that love for its protection after the wearying journey was new-born in their hearts. One cannot say; but the pair remained there.