THE FAERY YEAR 



water shrew in England, he was followed by an 

 acute observer and writer in Knapp, who pictured 

 the water shrews in their quick changes from frolic 

 to food. " They swim admirably, frolicking over 

 the floating leaves of the pond-weed and up the 

 foliage of the flags, which, bending with their 

 weight, will at times souse them in the pool, 

 and away they scramble to another, searching ap- 

 parently for the insects that frequent such places, 

 and feeding on drowned moths and similar insects. 

 They run along the margin of water, rooting amid 

 the leaves and mud with their long noses for 

 food, like little ducks, with great earnestness and 

 perseverance." 



Ploughman and Shepherd 



A liberal countryside education might include 

 some knowledge of the language of the plough, 

 the wain, the sheep-fold. Each seems to have a 

 vocabulary, almost an accent, of its own. There 

 is no speaking these languages with ease, save you 

 are bred to the calling of ploughman, carter, or 

 shepherd. They are acquired unconsciously, and 

 handed down from hamlet generation to generation. 

 Take the accomplished ploughman : when his horses 

 are not thoroughly broken to the work, or the soil 

 is obstinate through frost, he may be heard hour 

 after hour speaking a language foreign to those 

 whose business is not with the earth. It is sur- 

 prising how many different words the dictionary of 

 30 



