52 BY THE MILL-POOL 



of the water as she struck it made a pretty 

 sound in the silent dawn. Later, just as the 

 smoke rose from the miller's chimney, a moor- 

 hen led out her brood as if to teach them 

 the geography of the pool, for she kept taking 

 them from creeklet to creeklet till the miller 

 came to raise the hatch and drove them all 

 away. The hum of the water-wheel brought 

 back to the leveret's memory the swarm of 

 bees and the unforgettable din of the reapers ; 

 but if he looked for the invasion of his 

 new quarters by a posse of men and boys 

 he must have been agreeably disappointed 

 when, early in the forenoon, there came only a 

 solitary angler, whose entry was so noiseless 

 as scarcely to disturb the peace of the quiet 

 spot. Indeed the newcomer stood for a second 

 or two surveying the pool from the opening 

 between the withies before the leveret was 

 aware of his presence. On the discovery the 

 timid creature thought, naturally enough, that 

 the pair of restless black eyes were scanning 

 the bank in search of him ; he did not know 

 they were drawn now here, now there, by the 

 rising trout. The angler was a tall, spare 

 man of aquiline features, attired in grey tweed 

 suit and wearing a dove-coloured top-hat, 

 about which some fly-casts were neatly wound. 



