284 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



The fisher-folk are poor, and their harvest consists 

 mainly of shellfish, mussels, whelks, clams, and they 

 also dig at low water for sand-worms to be sold for 

 bait. They are, as I think I remarked before, like their 

 feathered fellow-creatures, the hooded crows; and in- 

 deed they resemble crows when seen, small and black, 

 scattered far out on the wide waste of sand. When 

 the men are away at sea and those noisy little animals, 

 the children, are shut up in school, you can imagine 

 that there is no longer any life in Wells; you would 

 not be in a quieter place on the wide brown marsh itself, 

 nor on the low grassy sand-hills faintly seen in the 

 distance, nor on the wide stretch of sand beyond, where 

 the men, crow-like, are seeking their subsistence. 



To Wells I accordingly went on October 17, yet was 

 no sooner in this ideal spot than I began to think it 

 was the last place where I could do any work, since 

 even the noises and distractions of London would have 

 a less disturbing effect than that low murmur, that 

 familiar yet ever strange sound of the old old sea, that 

 came to me by day and night, and the wild cries and 

 calls of passing birds, especially the cries of the geese. 



It is related of a man who has a great reputation in 

 his day which is now ended, that he was once taken 

 to task by a friend for having settled himself at Wells. 

 You, his friend said, with your love of mankind, your 

 noble ideals, your many talents, and especially your 

 eloquence in addressing your fellow men — how can you 

 endure to waste your years in this dead-alive little town 

 in a marsh? 



