104 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



even as old King Nebuchadnezzar nourished his body! 

 The sight of it was all I went for, all I wanted, and 

 whatever I saw besides pleased me only because it 

 formed a suitable background, or made it seem brighter 

 by contrast or served in some way to set it off. Old 

 red-brick farmhouses, seen at a distance, nestling 

 among evergreen and large, leafless trees, in many 

 cases the deep, sloping roofs stained all over with 

 orange - coloured lichen; quiet little hamlets too, 

 half hidden beneath their great elms as under a 

 reddish-purple cloud; the endless grey winding road, 

 with low thorn hedges on either side winding with it, 

 leafless and a deep purple brown in colour except 

 where ivy had grown over and covered them with 

 dark green brown-veined leaves silvered with the 

 sunlight. A hundred things besides — red cows grazing 

 on a green field, a flock of starlings wheeling about 

 overhead and anon dropping to the earth; gulls, 

 too, resting in another field, white and pale grey, 

 their beaks turned to the wind: they were like little 

 bird-shaped drifts of snow lying on the green turf, 

 shining in the sun. For all day long the weather was 

 perfect — a day of soft wind and bright sunshine 

 following a spell of cold, rough weather with flooding 

 rains; a soft blue sky peopled with white and pale 

 grey clouds travelling before the wind. 



And seeing these things — seeing and forgetting as 

 one sees whatever comes into the field of vision when 

 eyes and mind are occupied with some other thing — 

 the time went on until a little past noon, when I 

 suddenly came upon a new sight which gave me a 



