OWLS IN A VILLAGE 181 



Near Willersey there is a group of very large old 

 elm-trees which is a favourite meeting-place of the 

 owls, and one very dark starless night, about ten 

 o'clock, I had been listening to them, and after they 

 ceased hooting I remained for half an hour standing 

 motionless in the same place. At length, in the 

 direction of Saintbury, I heard the dull sound of 

 heavy stumbling footsteps coming towards me over 

 the rough, ridgy field. Nearer and nearer the man 

 came, until, arriving at the hedge close to which I 

 stood, he scrambled through, muttering maledictions 

 on the thorns that scratched and tore him ; then, 

 catching sight of me at a distance of two or three 

 yards, he started back and stood still very much 

 astonished at seeing a motionless human figure at 

 that spot. I greeted him, and, to explain my 

 presence, remarked that I had been listening to 

 the owls. 



" Owls ! — listening to the owls ! " he exclaimed, 

 staring at me. After a while he added, " We have 

 been having too much of the owls over at Saintbury." 

 Had I heard, he asked, about the young woman who 

 had dropped down dead a week or two ago, after 

 hearing an owl hooting near her cottage in the day- 

 time ? Well, the owl had been hooting again in the 

 same tree, and no one knew who it was for and what 



