THE CALL OF SUMMER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 688, 13 December 1909, Page 8

THE CALL OF SUMMER.

.-■■■:"■ ' ' " ■ ■ '♦ ■■'■ '■".'; -' ; - : ■■•■", BY BtTSH AND BEACH. WHEN NATURE SATS'TIEQOTERATE!" (Br Stiatus.) With the passing of the spring comes that subtle spirit of summer-time that calls on us for change, however■ slight. It is a. call of which wo are not always quite conscious/until it bursts ou the comprehension through some chance word, a song, or a glance at a fair picture. A bit of blue skv seen through whispering leaves or a glimpse of some glowing beach, where the salt anil tumbling sea receives clear streams flowing from 'among reeds and lilies, or a tiny tot; with spade aiid bucket, oil to the seaside,, inay cause the whole of one— both anima imd ..psyche—to cry out for u change in the daily, routine—for something different. Such sensations are more acute in the young than in-the not-so-young, but the little voices of beach and brish are potent, almost as the still, small. whisper of conscience, and the magic of thorn exhibits ibielf (in a lessening degree of eourso) in all rational folk up to at leas! fifty.: I would not like to debar anybody from sipping the. elorious midsummer wihcj not even those who »hare reached Shakespeare's '■ maximum, but up to fifty at least the, sensation comes as regularly as tho season itself. I believe (though, to be sure, I dp not know why) that it is the period of the year when Nature, working -subtly, recharges • our batteries with the good solar energy that is to keep us goinp for another year. Hard work the year round may have'.made some- of us just" a little "droopy," and just when tho fact is beginning to insist, on itself and worry-us, the whole mental tad physical being absorbs from the blue of the: sky and the sea, from tho sofl breeze, and the smoll of tho grass, and ,the golden sunbeams some seasonal electricity. Tc our sub-consciousness, to our '.. dimly-shaped mental .attitudes towards all ■ these happy ; laughing influences of tho Infinite, two words givo shape—"The holidays!" We feel, rathei than know , , that : they/are here, that Christmas carols in the clear-obscure of summer, and tho hope that springs, eternal in the New. Yeai is closo at hand. '" v ■ -\ j ; I was "shocked" at Island '-Bay on Sundaj afternoon.. I do not intend to convey that th« bathing dresses' worn were inadequate, or thai anything ■ went amiss with tho tram-cars.' ] mean to convey that the mid-summer,.sensa-tion—l was fjoing- to say madness—seized upor me whilst lying full length on'the sands, witl hands clasped under •my head. Thai part- .of .the- Pacific that, -ebbs v.anc no;ivs thiongh Cook Strait never looked quit* so blue before, and the tiny: waves surely'nevei curved so gracefnlly on to the smooth browr sand. Lying , serene inside' the island was an elegant white-painted yacht, exhibiting hei lines as she rose and fell w,ith gentle swell, i small boat pulled by the man showed ridicu lous. activity in the middle distance. Thi woman in white sat in-the stern and admircc ;—tho'man. ... Ten yards , away a tiny doto: humanity, gathering seaweed, shrieked as-i boisterous spaniel, wet and- playful, • attemptee to bito tho green stuff away. Half a dbzei big, hulking .fellows, played like youngsters ii tho sand, -and then chased each •''other' inti the .cool depths. The-summer : girl bathed not with the joyous freedom and ■ heaity' en joyment- , ono sees on tlio bathing beaches o: Sydney, , , but-rather timidly,, as "if ■ shy/ at par taking of the deep's doliciousness. Tho suniniei girls of yesterday just paddled, as thoy kep watchful eyes' on the charges on their lovo Behind-ine, I could hear , the faint' rattle : o teacups, not loud enough; to drown the gush ing song of a skylark away up in tho blui Mar Heaven's gates. . ..-. On this very Queei .of Summer days, I was- shocked—in tho elec trical.- sense, I mean—into the swift realisatioi that it was indeed the; time of glad thoughts ■which left no space-for the-forebodings o darker days.- ■'. .- .-.'.■> : ;, '■■.■"- -•. 'i. -'; . 'i'l can , _well imagine.; other ways and mean of attaining the same end. One spoke tome o a hammock beneath a- big. shade tree, near s clear .broolc, With the .fesciie waving 'beyond another of dancing waves , and : well-filled sails anda : "To r heave Ho!" etc.; and still anbthe: whispered of the quiet grandeur of hoary oli biish, well away from tho town, and even thi smolte of the essential creamery, where onl; the bell bird's solemn soprano made tho silenci andiblo. ... .' '. .':,'.' : ~ -. ■ , , ' - These, or-the,thought of. them, are the'force: that maid themselves felt at.'tbis ; season . o the year. They should not be .avoided—indeed they cannot, be. It is, the spirit of. summ'e: that permeates, the air stealing into warcho-ns and .factory, cngine'-rpom, nto counting-house Not.all.the'petty irig'entities of man-can kec] it out. .It u'Na.ture calling her .own -to thi bush 1 and ..the: beach, "and'■ sh'e. 'shoutd bi answered, ■' if :.it.,:b'o bnt.through 'the 'modiun of a threepenny ride to'lsland Bay. , .'- .'-.• ■ : ■, • Yes, , -"The good.old-summ'or-timo" was aliray: a; favourite song of mine'.' ■ .". '■- ■•• '■'•■■ • ■■"..■: