Flounce

“ When I had finished eating, I went down to the edge of the loch and, stooping, drank. Then I returned to my seat and waited. The stars were coming out one by one, and the horn of the moon was just appearing like the point of a silver sickle above a bank of clouds when I heard the music of the flute. It pulsated with a haunting beauty, like some elfin melody which the semi-darkness and the intervening water conspired to render strangely sweet. ”

“ As we pass a heavy flat ice-floe, we see an interesting sight. The waves are swaying it with a regular rhythm, and spouting up from its very center there is a large column of water which rises twenty to twenty-five meters into the air. The explanation of this strange spring is simple enough. A caprice of nature has formed a hole in the floe, and as the waves rock it, the water presses through the hole with such force that the floe becomes a floating fountain. ”

“ Listen, my heart, in his flute is the music of the smell of wild flowers, of the glistening leaves and gleaming water, of shadows resonant with bees’ wings.
The flute steals his smile from my friend’s lips and spreads it over my life.
LXVII
You always stand alone beyond the stream of my songs.
The waves of my tunes wash your feet but I know not how to reach them. ”

“ While they are feeding, they constantly give their calling song, varying the intonation and accent in a way which is very expressive— “Spring o’ the Y-e-a-r, Spring o’ the Year!” It has a breezy sound, as fresh and wild as if the wind were blowing through a flute. ”

“ How I curse her, how I bless her for his bliss!
VIII.
There are voices in the roar
Of the breakers on the shore,—
There are whispers in the wash of the sea.
There are echoes in the breeze,
As it murmurs ’neath the trees,
There are faces in the stars for me. ”

“ When the little girls have passed before the curtain, a wood-wind weaves a richer note into the flute melody; then the two blend into one song. But as the wood-wind grows in mellowness and richness, the flute gradually dies away into a secondary theme and the wood-wind alone evolves the melody of a new song. ”

“ There is always the sky to look at, Or the water in the well! But when night comes and he plays his flute, I think of him as a young man, With gold seals hanging from his watch, And a blue coat with silver buttons. As I lie in my bed The flute-notes push against my ears and lips, And I go to sleep, dreaming. ”

“ The broad lay still and placid in the sunlight, and the pairing water-birds swam in and out of its reed-fringed margin, and from one to another of its dense 'ronds,' or islands of reeds.
"There is not a breath of wind," said Frank, wetting his finger, and holding it up, to feel if possible by the increased coldness on one side or another, from which quarter the wind was blowing. ”

“ O Lord, sound once again those flute strains which you played for me, long ago, standing at the rosy edge of my morning sky,—and let all my complexities become simple and easy. Nothing save the music of your flute can make whole that which has been broken, and pure that which has been sullied. ”

“ One floats and wavers like a spineless ribbon of seaweed in the water; another burns with a steady radiance; a third blares from its fissure like a flame driven by the blowpipe. It is all a question of the under-draught, and some may feel it a little, and some a little more or a little less. ”

“ In a moment he was listening intently to the sound of flutes from just outside, flutes dripping a melody that was like a waterfall, cool and green as the room itself, accompanying a frothy piccolo, in play more fragile than the lace of suds that covered and charmed him. ”

“ She...
Deep within me springs a fountain,
Leaping upward to the sunlight,
At the sport of little breezes
Rudely scattered.
Dearest, all my veering sorrows
In your warmth are turned to beauty,
And the clear spring of my longing
Sobbing gently,
Ever constant, gay or tearful,
Breaks to dewdrops in the sunshine,
Falling back into my bosom,
Rainbow tinted. ”

“ Whenever I set my ear to it, I can hear the flute which is playing, its fountain of melody gushing forth from the flute-stops of separation. The immortal draught of the goddess is never exhausted. She sometimes breaks the bowl from which we drink it, only to smile at seeing us so disconsolate over the trifling loss. ”

“ The creature has no heart to beat like ours; one cannot take refuge from the mystery in a 'muscular contraction.' Fountain without supply—playing by its own force, for ever rising and falling all through the days of Spring, spending itself at last in gathered clouds of leaves, and iris of blossom. ”

“ A flute sends forth the tones of a flute, not those of a bassoon or a trumpet. If thou hearest the tones of a bassoon, but hast never before seen or heard any wind-instrument but the flute, it will certainly be inconceivable to thee how such tones can come out of a flute. ”

“ Now thou art a fountain always full and overflowing: thou art a fire always burning, and never decaying. Wherefore if I cannot draw out of the fulness of the fountain, nor drink my fill, I will at least set my mouth to the orifice of this heavenly well, that so I may draw from thence, some small drop to refresh my thirst, to the end that I may not be wholly dried up. ”

“ There may be whirlwinds of both kinds, but from the commonly observed effects, I suspect the rising one to be the most common: when [23] the upper air descends, it is, perhaps, in a greater body, extending wider, as in our thunder-gusts, and without much whirling; and, when air descends in a spout, or whirlwind, I should rather expect it would press the roof of a house inwards, or force in the tiles, shingles, or thatch, force a boat down into the water, or a piece of timber into the earth, than that it would lift them up, and carry them away. ”

“ When the wind is spent, which dilated the cloud, or the fermentation ceases, which generates the air and wind, the clouds may descend in a prodigious fall of water or rain. A remarkable intestine motion, like a violent fermentation, is very observable in the [55] cloud from whence the spout issues. No salt-water, I am persuaded, was ever observed to fall from the clouds, which must certainly have happened if sea-water had been raised by a spout. ”

“ The flute, flageolet, humming-top, and the cavity of the mouth in whistling, may be considered as simple wind instruments, in which the quality of the sound is alone determined by the vibrations of the air. I have already explained the manner in which the oscillations of a string excite aërial undulations, and thus produce sound ”

“ And whence the blasts of winds are borne around, and have different energies; whence the fountains ceaselessly spring, and the rivers, being ever flowing, run down into the sea, and neither is that fountain emptied whence they come, nor do they fill that sea whither they come! ”

“ The term flutes, it is necessary to remember, is in ancient usage of literature applied to include all pipes blown across and likewise those sounded by means of reeds that the breath sets vibrating.
All the world over men have found delight in fluting, and the flute as an instrument appears to be the common property of the human race. Either of bones of animals or birds, of reeds or alders, of stones or of clay, the art of man has fashioned flutes from the beginning of time’s records. ”

“ Flax sped along through the wind and the rain and the thunder. She was very much afraid that she should not reach the tall pine which was quite a way distant before the sun shone out, and the rainbow came. ”

“ Pure and bright, a fountain flowing
From the hoof-marks in the sod.
From that hour, the fount unfailing
Gladdens the whole region round,
Strengthening all who drink its waters,
While it soothes them with its sound. ”

“ There came first the rustle of water through long unused channels, then the shallow splash against the empty basin. Little by little the sound became deeper and more musical, till the still morning vibrated faintly to the mellow leap and ripple of the fountain's jubilant voice. ”

“ Now and again as they fed, the whole flock would rise momentarily into air and float up as though blown from the earth by some invisible breath, and then, as silently and simultaneously, sink to earth again. ”

“ Fortunately, my blameless life—how often has it saved me!—brought me the necessary permit,—and the Emblazoned Flunkey was satisfied and I unlimbered my trap on the edge of the great stone curb framing the basin in which were mirrored the overbending sky and gently waving trees. ”

“ When I play my flute to-night, earnest as if to leap the bounds [of] the narrow fold where human life is penned, and range the surrounding plain, I hear echo from a neighboring wood, a stolen pleasure, occasionally not rightfully heard, much more for other ears than ours, for 't is the reverse of sound. ”

“ Although the solid mass of the water beneath is still unchanged, when the gusts fly across the waves and strike the cliffs the foam is blown upward, hissing, and bursts into smoke against the crags. From under the broadening cloud a faint whispering sound comes, thin and shrill like a broadened whisper of the wind in grass. ”

“ Fuller and fuller, spreading, wave after wave, throughout the air, till it seem interfused and commingled with the breath which the listeners breathe, the flute's mellow gush streams along. The sun slopes in peace toward the west ”

“ I feel just as you do, Mole; simply dead tired, though not body-tired. It's lucky we've got the stream with us, to take us home. Isn't it jolly to feel the sun again, soaking into one's bones! And hark to the wind playing in the reeds! ”

“ Over every one of Stuart's figures, I see a cloud: I suppose his clouds were first, and then the spout; I do not know whether it be so with all spouts, but suppose it is. Now, if whirlwinds carried up the water, I should expect them in fair weather, but not under a cloud; as is observable of whirlwinds; they come in fair weather, not under the shade of a cloud, nor in the night; since shade cools the air: but, on the contrary, violent winds often descend from the clouds; strong gusts which occupy small spaces ”

“ Fluke, flōōk, n. a successful shot made by chance, as at billiards: any unexpected advantage.
Flume, flōōm, n. an artificial channel for water to be applied to some industrial purpose: (U.S.) a narrow defile with upright walls, the bottom occupied by a torrent.—Be, or Go, up the flume, to come to grief, to be done for. [O. Fr. flum—L. flumen, a river—fluĕre, to flow.] ”

“ A sound so small as to be almost lost in the echoes of the clamor, an impact upon the air like the tapping of the wings of an insect against one’s ear-drum, a persistent staccato note which no other noise could still, borne with curious distinctness upon some aërial current of the fog bank. ”

“ There is enough to sound the note and the little flute is there where there is no air and the blowing is strong and the blowing is long and the air is there where there is no air. Solemnly to stay is not a sad way. ”

“ What had been a gentle ten-miles-an-hour breeze on the river above began resolving itself into a succession of fitful gusts of twenty or thirty as I approached the rock-walled bend. Even a steady head-wind makes steering awkward in going into a rapid; a gusty one is a distinct nuisance. ”

“ So the white spray rushes along the low broken wall of rocks, the sun gleams on the flying fragments of the wave, again it sinks, and the rhythmic motion holds the mind, as an invisible force holds back the tide. ”

“ You have, no doubt, frequently observed a single cloud pass, from which a violent gust of wind issues, but of no great extent. I have observed such a gust make a lane through the woods, of some miles in length, by laying the trees flat to the ground, and not above eight or ten chains in breadth. Though the violence of the wind be in the same direction in which the cloud moves and precedes it, yet wind issues from all sides of it; so that supposing the cloud moves south-easterly, those on the north-east side of it feel a south-west wind, and others on the south-west side, a north-east. ”

“ But, if that which appears a water-spout at sea, does sometimes, in its progressive motion, meet with and pass over land, and there produce all the phenomena and effects of a whirlwind, it should thence seem still more evident, that a whirlwind and a spout are the same. ”

“ I imagine spouts, in cold seasons, as Gordon's in the Downs, prove the descent.
Query. Whether there is not always more or less cloud, first, where a spout appears?
Whether they are not, generally, on the borders of trade-winds; and whether this is for, or against me?
Whether there be any credible account of a whirlwind's carrying up all the water in a pool, or small pond: as when shoal, and the banks low, a strong gust might be supposed to blow it all out?
Whether a violent tornado, of a small extent, and other sudden and strong gusts, be not winds from above, descending nearly perpendicular ”

“ Fountain will also arrest our eye: for this also is of Nature's own and most cunning workmanship, bursts from the depths of the earth, with a full gushing current, into the light of day; and often will the traveller turn aside to drink of its clear waters, and muse among its rocks and pines. ”

“ This fluttering is no doubt caused by some light puff of air setting the leaf in motion, and then dying away without any regular current to follow its course; the capricious movement continues until the force of the impulse is exhausted, and the giddy leaf has tired itself out. ”

“ And the fountain rises ever in showers of silver sparks, up to the heaven it will not reach till fire has made it vapour. And so the whole creation aspires, out of the night of despair, into the cool freshness of dawn and on to the sun of noon. ”

“ In the centre of the fall, where the water is the heaviest, it takes the leap in an unbroken mass of the deepest green, and in many places reaches the bottom in crystal columns of the same hue, till they meet the snow-white foam that heaves and rolls convulsedly in the enormous basin. ”