22 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



slightest haste. Squirrels that could have told us all 

 we \vished to know, at least they looked as if they 

 could, peeped down and round trunks of trees at 

 us, and then raced each other from branch to branch, 

 as if to show us the measure of their happiness. All 

 was so quiet that the undulating flight of a popinjay, 

 which perched on a branch near by, was audible 

 before we saw her or heard the call which quickly 

 brought her brilhantly-coated and moustached lord. 

 We gazed and wondered, first at their perfect forms 

 and colours, and then at the glorious garden in which 

 they enjoyed such perfect trust and happiness, while 

 we two mortals, as completely happy as ever mortals 

 were, had every nerve quite highly strung, looking 

 and hstening for we knew not what. So still were 

 we that two pheasants com.menced a fight within ten 

 yards of where we stood. First one, and then the 

 other, showed his glittering plmnage above the bracken 

 as they made flying efforts to get a weight into their 

 spurs that should equal their furious jealousy. Female 

 witnesses of the encounter were moving the green 

 curtain that hid them, and now and then we heard 

 cackles that would urge their lords to kill or die; 

 and they would have so fought had we not gone 

 forward and separated the would-be murderers by 

 throwing up our arms and crying 'Shoo ! Shoo !' 



The distorted features of the bleeding birds quite 

 untuned us for seeing fairies, so we retreated to the 

 brook. There we found a path, but it soon grew 

 less and less defined, and then ended in prickly furze 

 and sharp-toothed brambles that sometimes held us 

 prisoners. Even the holland frock was pierced and 

 held until rescued, but it came through its many 

 battles with fewer wounds than my woollen cloth. 



Many times that day a funnel-shaped needlecase 

 was opened and held so that the heads came down 

 it for the choosing of the right size, and when all was 

 ready I was ordered to take first one position and 



