THE PARTRIDGE 



Partridge Nesting Habits 



TWM SAR was the genius of the hamlet. 

 His neighbours reHed on him for help in 

 doubt and trouble. His little " shop " stood at a 

 corner of the cross-roads ; and almost filling it 

 from door to window was a collection of old 

 furniture, boards, planks, carpenter's tools, clog- 

 soles, boot-lasts, nails, screws, rusty bicycle 

 wheels, paint-pots, bmshes, soldering irons, 

 picture frames, block-pulleys, cart-shafts — ^all 

 sorts and conditions of things likely to bewilder 

 a chance passer-by who might desire to know 

 what Twm could do or what he could not do. 

 Amid this litter, an apprentice boy might at 

 odd hours of the day have been seen at work ; 

 but Twm was seldom found at home. Either 

 he was away at some lone farm among the hills, 

 building outhouses, mending clocks and chairs 

 and implements, doctoring cows and sheep, 

 assisting at seed-time or harvest ; or he was out 

 among the three-acre fields of his own little 



139 



