60 By Leafy Ways. 



lingers in the west, and mists are gathering along the 

 darkening hills. 



In the gloaming the great book of nature opens on 

 another play, with altered scenery and different actors. 



Now, on a quiet reach of the river, the otter sallies 

 forth with her cubs, from their fastness among the 

 willow roots under the bank ; and they gambol and 

 frolic in the water, and roll over and over like kittens 

 playing on the hearth. 



There are few destructive creatures that have not a 

 useful part assigned to them in the economy of Nature ; 

 and even the otter, with all his appetite for trout, 

 renders excellent service to the angler by killing weak 

 and sickly fish, and thus helping to keep disease out 

 of the river. 



Now all along the bank the water-rats come out 

 from their burrows, and sitting at the mouths of their 

 holes, or on the ledge that runs along the edge of the 

 stream, eat their frugal supper of reeds. 



Now one drops into the water, and with nose just 

 visible above the surface, drifts noiselessly to the 

 farther shore. 



Time was when the water-rat was regarded as a 

 dangerous beast ; a destroyer of fish, a plunderer of 

 nests, a foe to mallard and moorhen, with a record 

 nearly as dark as that of his cunning Hanoverian 

 namesake, of whom indeed he is no relative at all. 

 But he is a strict vegetarian, and no keeper need 

 watch with alarm his gentle and innocent ways. 



