JANUARY IN BROADLAND. 13 



from view, and these are partially covered with the soft, pure mantle of 

 winter. 



O % Cf O 



It is still mid-winter and cold, but a thaw has suddenly set in. It is sloppy 

 underfoot. Nature has assumed a gloomier outlook, and everything but the birds 

 appears dull ; they, poor rogues, are glad of a respite, for the softened earth will 

 yield them their meat once more. The snipe has again made his appearance, and 

 is probing in the unlocked ooze for worms and buried larvae. The chaffinches are 

 searching in the cultivated patch for uncovered seeds, the lapwings in the low- 

 lands are eyeing each likely wormcast, and the meadow-pipit is closely scanning 

 the weedy debris by the ditch-side. 



We have been wending our way down from the deserted little Broadland rail- 

 way station, where the solitary porter seemed loth to drag himself from the cheery 

 fire in his cabin of an office. A redbreast jauntily chinked us ' good-day ! ' from 

 an elevated position upon the great white crossing-gate, and a couple of hungry 

 sparrows fell to fighting on the metals over a breadcrumb dropped from a carriage 

 window; they really appear to enjoy a breakfast all the better for a preliminary 

 scrimmage. 



As we pass along between the tall hawthorn hedges, redwings reluctantly 

 leave their feasting upon the lessening berries; now a blackbird, and now a field- 

 fare takes to startled flight from the rootlets below, where dormant snails were 

 being eagerly searched for. A woodcock overtops one hedge, and disappears 

 behind the one on the other side of the road. 



Here we are again by the Broadside, according to appointment, and here is 

 our friend the skating parson, clad from top to toe in wild-fowler's attire, and but 

 for that intellectual face, you might for all the world take him for a fenman. He 

 is none of your namby-pamby individuals, who portray life as a perpetual season 

 of psalm-singing and breast-smiting; why we need remain ' miserable sinners/ he 

 is at a loss to know, but whilst he 



' Lures to brighter worlds arid leads the way,' 



he believes in securing all the enjoyment in the present world possible, so long as 

 such pursuit is in accord with sound judgment and Bible truths. Forsooth ! he is 

 a sportsman, and is well able to handle a gun and scull a punt; he is muffled up 

 in costume suited to the season and the errand on which we are going. Our 

 invite to join him dates back to that frosty morning's skating. His roomy punt, 

 wherein is fastened by a 'knee' a huge gun, lies beside the puny bridge which 

 spans a ' neck ' of the Broad that communicates with another. All aboard, his 



