he clouds are at play in the azure space,
And their shadows at play on the bright green vale,
And here they stretch to the frolic chase,
And there they roll on the easy gale.

There's a dance of leaves on that aspen bower,
There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,
There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.

And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles
On the dewy earth that smiles in his ray,
On the leaping waters and gay young isles;
Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away.

BRYANT

OLD ENGLISH LIFE

When the sun rose on England of olden time, its faint red light stirred
every sleeper from the sack of straw, which formed the only bed of the
age. Springing from this rustling couch, where he had lain naked, and
throwing off the coarse coverlets, usually of sheepskin, the subject of
King Alfred donned the day's dress. Gentlemen wore linen or woollen
tunics, which reached to the knee; and, over these, long fur-lined
cloaks, fastened with a brooch of ivory or gold. Strips of cloth or
leather, bandaged crosswise from the ankle to the knee over red and blue
stockings; and black, pointed shoes, slit along the instep almost to the
toes and fastened with two thongs, completed the costume of an
Anglo-Saxon gentleman. The ladies, wrapping a veil of linen or silk upon
their delicate curls, laced a loose-flowing gown over a tight-sleeved
bodice, and pinned the graceful folds of their mantles with golden
butterflies and other tasteful trinkets.

Breakfast consisted probably of bread, meat, and ale, but was a lighter
repast than that taken when the hurry of the day lay behind. Often it
was eaten in the bower or private apartment.

The central picture in Old English life--the great event of the day--was
_Noon-meat_, or dinner in the great hall. A little before three, the
chief and all his household, with any stray guests who might have
dropped in, met in the hall, which stood in the centre of its encircling
bowers--the principal apartment of every Old English house. Clouds of
wood smoke, rolling up from a fire which blazed in the middle of the
floor, blackened the carved rafters of the arched roof before they found
their way out of the hole above which did duty as a chimney.

Tapestries, dyed purple, or glowing with variegated pictures of saints
and heroes, hung, and if the day was stormy, f