The night is silent - a solitary bi

The night is silent - a solitary bird breaks this silence with its screech and the beat of its wings as it skims over the dewy field down the sloping bank to its rendezvous - accipio omen! How full of omens all Nature is! I take warning from the flight of the birds, from their cries, from the playful slap of the fish against the water's surface, from their disappearance beneath the depths, from a distant barking of dogs, from a wagon's faraway clatter, from footfalls that echo from afar.