110 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



of superiority. And for all that, the dunlin 

 seemed a pretty innocent, and I wished that 

 he had two good legs. As for his being only 

 one of thousands, so am I and no very 

 fine one either ; but I should n't like to be 

 shot at from behind a wall; and when I 

 have a toothache, the sense of my personal 

 insignificance is of small use in dulling the 

 pain. Poor dunlin ! 



I allowed myself two hours from the gate 

 back to the railroad station, though it is less 

 than an hour's walk. Some of the fairest 

 views are to be obtained from the road ; and 

 there, I told myself, I should be sheltered 

 from the wind and could sit still at my ease. 

 The first half of the distance, too, would 

 take me between pleasant hedgerows, in 

 which are many things worthy of a stroller's 

 notice. 



For some time, indeed, I did little but stop 

 and look behind. The marshes pulled me 

 about : so level, so expansive, so richly 

 brown, so pointed with haycocks (once, the 

 notion taking me, I counted far enough to 

 see that there were more than two hundred 

 in sight), and so beautifully backed by the 



