Page:Under the greenwood tree (1872 Volume 2).pdf/130
hardly ever been known to move, were visibly rocked by the fiercer gusts, distressing the mind by its painful unwontedness, as when a strong man is seen to shed tears. Low-hanging boughs went up and down; high and erect boughs went to and fro; the blasts being so irregular, and divided into so many cross-currents, that neighbouring branches of the same tree swept the skies in independent motions, crossed each other, passed, or became entangled. Across the open spaces flew flocks of green and yellowish leaves, which, after travelling a long distance from their parent trees, reached the ground, and lay there with their under-sides upward.
As the rain and wind increased, and Fancy's bonnet-ribbons leapt more and more snappishly against her chin, she paused to consider her latitude, and the distance to a place of shelter. The nearest