Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 21, 1896 - Miscellanies, Volume IV

AN AUTUMN EFFECT
labourer's way of life. It was he who called my
attention to these jugs of ale by the hedgerow ; he
could not sufficiently express the liberality of these
men's wages ; he told me how sharp an appetite was
given by breaking up the earth in the morning air,
whether with plough or spade, and cordially admired
this provision of nature. He sang Ofortunatos agri-
colas ! indeed, in every possible key, and with many
cunning inflections, till I began to wonder what was
the use of such people as Mr. Arch, and to sing the
same air myself in a more diffident manner.
Tring was reached, and then Tring railway
station ; for the two are not very near, the good
people of Tring having held the railway, of old
days, in extreme apprehension, lest some day it
should break loose in the town and work mischief.
I had a last walk, among russet beeches as usual,
and the air filled, as usual, with the carolling of
larks ; I heard shots fired in the distance, and saw,
as a new sign of the fulfilled autumn, two horse-
men exercising a pack of foxhounds. And then
the train came and carried me back to London.
VII
A WINTER'S WALK IN CARRICK AND
GALLOWAY
(A Fragment : 1876)
At the famous bridge of Doon, Kyle, the central
district of the shire of Ayr, marches with Carrick,
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