Pond Life 
If you have gone up quietly in the 
first place and settled yourself in some 
bush, or other convenient spot from 
which you can see all around, you 
may be surprised, perhaps, to see a 
moorhen appear from under the bank 
close by. You had no idea it was there, 
and wonder perhaps where it has come 
from. It has been there all the time, 
only you never knew it. For its sharp 
ears heard your footsteps, or its senses 
told it, from the vibration of the ground, 
that somebody was coming. Without 
making the slightest ripple or commotion, 
the cunning bird dived and took shelter 
under the bank, perhaps in a water-rat’s 
hole, or even held on to the weeds at the 
bottom of the water with its long toes, 
and put up the tip of its beak above 
the surface to breathe unseen and 
I0o 
