n that shady lane, until the sudden turn brings us to an
opening where four roads meet, where a noble avenue turns down to the
Great House; where the village church rears its modest spire from amidst
its venerable yew trees: and where, embosomed in orchards and gardens,
and backed by barns and ricks, and all the wealth of the farmyard,
stands the spacious and comfortable abode of good Farmer Riley,--the end
and object of our walk.

And in happy time the message is said and the answer given, for this
beautiful mild day is edging off into a dense frosty evening; the leaves
of the elm and the linden in the old avenue are quivering and vibrating
and fluttering in the air, and at length falling crisply on the earth,
as if Dash were beating for pheasants in the tree-tops; the sun gleams
dimly through the fog, giving little more of light and heat than his
fair sister the lady moon;--I don't know a more disappointing person
than a cold sun; and I am beginning to wrap my cloak closely round me,
and to calculate the distance to my own fireside, recanting all the way
my praises of November, and longing for the showery, flowery April, as
much as if I were a half-chilled butterfly, or a dahlia knocked down by
the frost.

Ah, dear me! what a climate this is, that one cannot keep in the same
mind about it for half an hour together! I wonder, by the way, whether
the fault is in the weather, which Dash does not seem to care for, or
in me? If I should happen to be wet through in a shower next spring, and
should catch myself longing for autumn, that would settle the question.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Village, by Mary Russell Mitford

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