... The wind seized our breath. The lake was rough. There was a boat
by itself floating in the middle of the bay below Water Millock.We rested
again in the Water Millock Lane. The hawthorns are black and green, the
birches here and there greenish, but there is yet more of purple to be
seen on the twigs. We got over into a field to avoid some cows - people
working. A few primroses by the roadside - woodsorrel flower, the
anemone, scentless violets, strawberries, and that starry, yellow flower
which Mrs. C. calls pile wort. When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow
Park we saw a few daffodils close to the water-side. We fancied that the
lake had floated the seeds ashore, and that the little colony had so sprung
up.
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But as we went along there were more and yet more; and at last, under
the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along
the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils
so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones about and about them; some
rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow, for weariness; and
the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed
with the wind, that blew upon them over the lake; they looked so gay, ever
glancing, ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them.
There was here and there a little knot, and a few stragglers higher up;
but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity, unity, and life
of that one busy highway.
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