96 THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. 



X. 



DISTANT RELATIONS. 



BEHIND the old mill, whose overshot wheel, 

 backed by a wall thickly covered with the 

 young creeping fronds of hart's-tongue 

 ferns, forms such a picturesque foreground 

 for the view of our little valley, the mill- 

 stream expands into a small shallow pond, 

 overhung at its edges by thick-set hazel- 

 bushes and clambering honeysuckle. Of 

 course it is only dammed back by a mud 

 wall, with sluices for the miller's water- 

 power ; but it has a certain rustic simplicity 

 of its own, which makes it beautiful to our 

 eyes for all that, in spite of its utilitarian 

 origin. At the bottom of this shallow pond 

 you may now see a miracle daily taking 



