AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



height, against a rosy cloud, some small gnat-like 

 specks may be made out a band of swifts at their 

 revels of dawn. 



RAIN after drought turns' the earth into a new heaven 

 for myriads of thirsty creatures by reason 

 Pride of of the reappearance of worms ; they have 

 the rejoiced in the showers no less than the 



Morning moles and birds so long denied a wormy 

 feast. Thrushes have terrible struggles in 

 rearing their young, and those are fortunate who find 

 out the dormitories of aestivating snails. Robins often 

 seem unequal to rearing second broods. Soft rains 

 appear to turn the swallows' heads with joy. There is 

 something human in the ecstasy of a band of swallows 

 and martins, a hundred strong, as they skim above the 

 surface of a river reach, while an early morning rain 

 falls like a blessing, and their eager calls tell how they 

 rejoice in the abundant insect food. In the West 

 Country they have a beautiful name for such a re- 

 freshing shower " The Pride of the Morning." 



As twilight deepens over the river, and the birds are at 

 their evensongs, there floats upstream the 

 The sound of a faint whistle. Nobody would 



Otter's heed it save an angler, or some other quiet, 

 Pool still body. It is a peculiar whistle, not bird- 



like and not quite human; and it carries a 

 message from the osiers to the trout which till now 

 have been rising freely: they rise no more. Another 

 whistle, a rustle of reeds, a swirl of dark waters, and 

 then a long, shadowy form glides up mid-stream. Two 

 shadows follow; mother otter has come to the pool to 

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