{"product_id":"2940013741119","title":"Children of the Pool","description":"A couple of summers ago I was staying with old friends in my native\u003cbr\u003ecounty, on the Welsh border. It was in the heat and drought of a hot and\u003cbr\u003edry year, and I came into those green, well-watered valleys with a sense\u003cbr\u003eof a great refreshment. Here was relief from the burning of London\u003cbr\u003estreets, from the close and airless nights, when all the myriad walls of\u003cbr\u003ebrick and stone and concrete and the pavements that are endless give out\u003cbr\u003einto the heavy darkness the fires that all day long have been drawn from\u003cbr\u003ethe sun. And from those roadways that have become like railways, with\u003cbr\u003etheir changing lamps, and their yellow globes, and their bars and studs\u003cbr\u003eof steel; from the menace of instant death if your feet stray from the\u003cbr\u003etrack: from all this what a rest to walk under the green leaf in quiet,\u003cbr\u003eand hear the stream trickling from the heart of the hill.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy friends were old friends, and they were urgent that I should go my\u003cbr\u003eown way. There was breakfast at nine, but it was equally serviceable and\u003cbr\u003eexcellent at ten; and I could be in for something cold for lunch, if I\u003cbr\u003eliked; and if I didn't like I could stay away till dinner at half past\u003cbr\u003eseven; and then there was all the evening for talks about old times and\u003cbr\u003eabout the changes, with comfortable drinks, and bed soothed by memories\u003cbr\u003eand tobacco, and by the brook that twisted under dark alders through the\u003cbr\u003emeadow below. And not a red bungalow to be seen for many a mile around!\u003cbr\u003eSometimes, when the heat even in that green land was more than burning,\u003cbr\u003eand the wind from the mountains in the west ceased, I would stay all day\u003cbr\u003eunder shade on the lawn, but more often I went afield and trod\u003cbr\u003eremembered ways, and tried to find new ones, in that happy and\u003cbr\u003ebewildered country. There, paths go wandering into undiscovered valleys,\u003cbr\u003ethere from deep and narrow lanes with overshadowing hedges, still\u003cbr\u003esmaller tracks that I suppose are old bridlepaths, creep obscurely,\u003cbr\u003eobviously leading nowhere in particular.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was on a day of cooler air that I went adventuring abroad on such an\u003cbr\u003eexpedition. It was a \"day of the veil.\" There were no clouds in the sky,\u003cbr\u003ebut a high mist, grey and luminous, had been drawn all over it. At one\u003cbr\u003emoment, it would seem that the sun must shine through, and the blue\u003cbr\u003eappear; and then the trees in the wood would seem to blossom, and the\u003cbr\u003emeadows lightened; and then again the veil would be drawn. I struck off\u003cbr\u003eby the stony lane that led from the back of the house up over the hill;\u003cbr\u003eI had last gone that way a-many years ago, of a winter afternoon, when\u003cbr\u003ethe ruts were frozen into hard ridges, and dark pines on high places\u003cbr\u003erose above snow, and the sun was red and still above the mountain. I\u003cbr\u003eremembered that the way had given good sport, with twists to right and\u003cbr\u003eleft, and unexpected descents, and then risings to places of thorn and\u003cbr\u003ebracken, till it darkened to the hushed stillness of a winter's night,\u003cbr\u003eand I turned homeward reluctant. Now I took another chance with all the\u003cbr\u003esummer day before me, and resolved to come to some end and conclusion of\u003cbr\u003ethe matter.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47152692986096,"sku":"2940013741119","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013741119_p0.jpg?v=1763589620","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013741119","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}