The Open Air 



and he looked up and saw a large bird not very far 

 up, not farther than he could fling, or shoot his 

 arrows, and the bird was fluttering his wings, but did 

 not move away farther, as if he had been tied in the 

 air. Guido knew it was a hawk, and the hawk 

 was staying there to see if there was a mouse 

 or a little bird in the wheat. After a minute 

 the hawk stopped fluttering and lifted his wings 

 together as a butterfly does when he shuts his, and 

 down the hawk came, straight into the corn. " Go 

 away! " shouted Guido jumping up, and flinging his 

 cap, and the hawk, dreadfully frightened and terribly 

 cross, checked himself and rose again with an angry 

 rush. So the mouse escaped, but Guido could not 

 find his cap for some time. Then he went on, and 

 still the ground sloping sent him down the hill till he 

 came close to the copse. 



Some sparrows came out from the copse, and he 

 stopped and saw one of them perch on a stalk of 

 wheat, with one foot above the other sideways, so that 

 he could pick at the ear and get the corn. Guido 

 watched the sparrow clear the ear, then he moved, 

 and the sparrows flew back to the copse, where they 

 chattered at him for disturbing them. There was 

 a ditch between the corn and the copse, and a stream- 

 let; he picked up a stone and threw it in, and the 

 splash frightened a rabbit, who slipped over the bank 

 and into a hole. The boughs of an oak reached out 

 across to the corn, and made so pleasant a shade that 

 Guido, who was very hot from walking in the sun, 

 sat down on the bank of the streamlet with his feet 

 dangling over it, and watched the floating grass sway 

 slowly as the water ran. Gently he leaned back till 

 his back rested on the sloping ground he raised one 

 knee, and left the other foot over the verge where the 



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