A LAN I) -LOVER AND HIS LAND 



prouder than pride; other flowers in 

 quantity, white, pink, purple, yellow, 

 vari-colored, too many to name. With 

 fair luck, you may surprise a squirrel; 

 but only a rare chance brings you upon 

 a partridge a mother bird, with her 

 brood, who, after vain lurings of calls 

 and fluttering wings, walks boldly into 

 sight, ruff up, wings drooping, crying 

 aloud to her peeping, scattered brood. 

 She makes you half forget that your 

 destination is the trout pond, made by 

 damming the brooks after they have 

 joined. Trout are plenty in it, you 

 see them leap and dart all over the 

 silver face of the pond. But they are 

 too newly planted as yet for catching ; 

 other years, there will be another story. 

 This story has no moral, beyond the 

 fact of verity. North Castle Farm is 

 underdrawn rather than overdrawn. 



29] 



