five o'clock
It was scented with dew and grass and the breath of waking trees and growing things ; early twitters and thrills were to be heard here and there , insisting on morning joyfulness ; rabbits frisked about among the fine-grassed hummocks of their warren and , as he passed , scuttled back into their holes , with a whisking of short white tails , at which he laughed with friendly amusement . Cropping stags lifted their antlered heads , and fawns with dappled sides and immense lustrous eyes gazed at him without actual fear , even while they sidled closer to their mothers . A skylark springing suddenly from the grass a few yards from his feet made him stop short once and stand looking upward and listening . Who could pass by a skylark at five o'clock on a summer 's morning -- the little , heavenly light-heart circling and wheeling , showering down diamonds , showering down pearls , from its tiny pulsating , trilling throat ? `` Do you know why they sing like that ? It is because all but the joy of things has been kept hidden from them . They knew nothing but life and flight and mating , and the gold of the sun .