Harsh screams break up the muffled 

 morning stillness; there is wild swooping 

 earthward of some huge feathered thing ; 

 more cries, a great running to and fro. The 

 peacocks are awake have been, indeed, this 

 two hours yet have barely agreed with 

 themselves to leave their roost the tall oak 

 by the gate. Gaudy savages are they, all 

 and several, yet never was watch -dog so 

 vigilant. At the faintest stir their wild 

 shrilling murders sleep. It was this trust- 

 worthy quality, maybe, that made them the 

 bird of chivalry. Your true knight swore 

 always " By the peacock and the ladies." 



In general they are no sluggards. It is 

 the mist, surely, which has kept them aperch 

 till eight o' the clock. How queer .and un- 

 gainly the cock - birds look ! long, limp, 

 draggle-tailed, darting hither and yon, now 

 seen, now vanished a race of feathered 

 ghosts. 



For the mist is rolling in, thick and thick- 

 er. The south wind is under it ; it must 

 fall as rain or rise as cloud. A rift breaks 

 through it there far to the right. One hand 

 it goes up and up, heaving, tossing, ever ris- 

 ing, away to the rimming hills. Within the 

 half-hour you shall see it sail down wind, a 

 drifting" cumulus, white and high, that by 



