They may be like bells across the meadow (5)
I believe the answer is:
tents
'they may be like bells' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adverb but the answer is not.
'across the meadow' is the wordplay.
'across' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'meadow' becomes 'tens' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't' placed into 'tens' is 'TENTS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tents that I've seen before include "Canvas shelters" , "Temporary shelters" , "Portable shelters" , "Accommodation" .)