The Hawaiian gazette., 1870-09-28
sleep As An Insiisation.

One OF the pleasantest places in the
world in which sleep can visit us is a sum
mer, meadow, when the grass is in flower
You nestle down among the tall. plant
green stalks, with a canopy of great white
oxdaisies nodding over your head. You
lazily watch the big humble" bee, in his
velvet suit of black and orange, bustling
about from clover-top 10 clover-top-a
frettul lover, or testy honey-merchant,
whichever he may be, for he will reply to
no questions. Presently he will come
bouncing at you, as if you were an inter-
loper whom he at once hated and despised ;
and then he viii make off in sudden rage,
as hot and fiery as Blue Beard Very
soon all sorts of quaint-shaped creatures
will one by one appear, and climb up into
the golden dishes of the buttercup flowers,
or on to the bending-grasses TO look at you !;
little demure beetles will nod their heads
and move their antenne suspiciously !;
then will follow dainty ladybirds in their
gay shells, and stealthy timid insects, who
will keep down low in the grass, and peep
ont ut the intruder into their dominion.
and pugnacious red ants, who fear no.
thing. A grasshopper is safe TO vault over
you acrobatically. A moment after, a
white butterfly will career near YOU, re-
connoitering for the hidden fairies; and
little blue dragon-hies, with bodies like
mere threads of sapphire, viii skim past
with their gauzy wings, wondering who
on earth You are and what you want
Swallows will dart by with a curved flight,
which is the poetry of motion. Gusts of
wild-rose leaves will scatter over you from
the neighboring hedges. All at once. as
you lie half asleep, You will remember
what it is you like. Why, of course, you
are like Bottom, the transformed weaver
of Athens, waited on by the fairies. The
lark above, almost out of sight in the warm
blue air, is, no doubt, Titania herself,
singing to YOU before she descends at twi-
light and changes her shape, and trans
forms the creatures that surround you in
to Peas-blossom, Cobweb and the rest.
They will dance around you, and then,
kneeling, offer you refreshments, dew in
acorn-cups and honey in rose-leaveS. They
will-but gradually the air gets stilIer,
balmy calmness benumbs you, a sumptu-
Gus repose-you are asleep. Probably if
you are family man, the clamor of many
children will awake you, and romping
cluster Of urchins falling on you, will drag |
you in to tea; or if you are newly married |
even a pleasanter form of awakening may
arouse YOU, and two soft little red lips
may press yours, and tell the lazy, lazy
fellow" in half dozen kisses, that supper
is ready.
have often thought how pleasant it
would be to go to sleep in the centre of a
eorn-feld-a corn-feld where acres of
goldern spears were swaying TO and fro
N the wind, and every breeze ploughed
burrows that close the instant
he breath had passed. Tat delicious
sound would promote slumber;
% also would that ceaseless cracking as
If fire running through straw, which
shows that the grain is ripe, and that the
Try husks are already parting. The Ian
yuid peoples would be pleasant dropping
,ver ones head, and fair would futter the
delicious blue of the corn-fower. But
hen mother earth is hard, and moreover
farmer Giles might strongly object /
/ once slept in a tree-that was deli
ious. l was boy then, fond of reading,
nd to get time to myself l used to climb
p big sycamore at the end of our gar
len with my book, Pope's Odyssey, or the
arabian Nights, to find green tent where
could enjoy my dream-world all alone
With the delight of Jack-ofthe-Bean-Stalk
used to climb and climb till / could find
ut a snug combination of boughs, where f
could either sit or sleep. The thrushes ]
ang to me as l lay there listening to the :
ustling of the sunny, transparent leaves, '
r, with book half closed, wondering how c
Aladdin would ever escape from the cave o
/ which the cruel magician, his proud :,
ncle, lad just immured him. Then throw Il
lg my arm round bough, with a deli
Gus fear and full knowledge that | :,
light break my neck if let go my hold, o
used to snatch a moment or two of sleep. a
had precedent for it, too, for some Eth .
plan nation, had heard of from Herodo- :,
Is, used TO live in trees. 7
There is something supremacy delight Il
] in the first night of country visit. !
is so quiet. Ones ignorance to
the place rouses the imagination, and O.
nds it wondering. The sheets are so b.
hite, the air 50 pure you open the lat :,
,e to swell the honeysuckle, and moth b
It's out the candle. In the morning the b
rds greet you with pleasant welcome; {.
you paddle across the floor with bare
ct, and look ont and find the window ar
with white and crimson roses. it,
breath Of paradise watts in, rendering g