6 A lout the Feathered Folk. 



a grassy track, where foxgloves and 

 harebells and tufts of fern are 

 ranged in long lines of loveliness. 

 And so peaceful and solitary can 

 it be, that Hannah Hatherly once 

 found a lark's nest there, in an old 

 rut, the half-fledged little larklings 

 not a whit disturbed by such few 

 folk as passed that way. 



In January and February the 

 frost builds fairy bridges across the 

 ruts, and there is sometimes a 

 glittering rime upon the spiders' 

 webs amongst the briars; some- 

 times gleams of russet and glory 

 of scarlet where beech-leaves have 

 been swept together into a hollow, 

 or little knobs of fungus grow 

 sturdily against a decaying bough. 

 A robin hops leisurely along at 

 these times on his way to the 

 window-sill of the farm parlour, or 

 a blackbird flies swiftly over the 

 hawthorns, his beak open and his 

 crop full of berries. 



