110 THE HERON OF CASTLE CEEEK 



beak to her nest, built high up in a tree not far 

 from the mill ; and, greatly daring, the boy had 

 climbed to the giddy height to see her four big 

 blue eggs, that, as Serewulf told him, had 

 borrowed their colour from the unclouded sky. 

 Later, when again he wished to climb, the 

 forester had dissuaded him from mounting 

 further than the bough beneath the nest, and 

 from that point of view he had seen the young 

 birds, as, hissing with fear and rage, they bent 

 over the nest in readiness to resist his inter- 

 ference, while the parent herons, anxious for 

 their fledglings' safety, and croaking their alarm, 

 circled slowly high above the tree tops. 



