The Star Dreamer by Egerton Castle

Great bliss was with them and great happiness Grew, like a lusty flower, in June's caress. -KEATS (_Pot of Basil_).

July over the meadows, sweeter in death than in life, where the long grass lay in swathes and the bared earth split and crumbled under the fierce sun. July in the great woods, with leaves at their deepest green, nobly still against the noble still azure, throwing blocks of green shade in the mossy aisles and wondrous grey designs of leaf and branch on the hardened ground. July in the drowsy hum of the laden bee; in the birds' silence and the insects' orchestra-those undertones of sounds-everywhere; July in the sweet hearted rose, in the plenitude of summer fulfilment. July over garden and cornfield and purple moor.