

The Spareow 



CHAPTER XXVI 



Autumn, 1912 



Wells-next-the-Sea, as I have already said in a 

 chapter a long way back in this volume, is one of the 

 spots I love best to frequent in the autumn, chiefly 

 to see and hear the wild geese that winter there in 

 larger numbers than at any other point on the coast. 

 This season of 1912 I had another object in going 

 thither; there remained two or three weeks' work to 

 be done in order to complete this book ; and where, 

 flying from London, could one find a place more ad- 

 mirably suited for such a purpose? A small, ancient, 

 village-like town, set in a low flat land next the sea, 

 or separated from the sea by a mile-wide marsh, grey 

 in summer, but now rust-brown in its autumnal colour. 



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