CHAPTER IV. 



The village The washpool Village industries The belfry 

 Jackdaws Village chronicles. 



\ SHORT distance below the cottagers' " dipping- 

 /JL place " just mentioned, the same stream, leaving 

 the deep grove or gully, widens suddenly into a large, 

 clear pool, shaded by two tall fir trees and an equally 

 tall poplar. The tops of these trees are nearly level with 

 the plain above the verdant valley in which the stream 

 flows, and being side by side, the difference in the 

 manner of their growth is strongly contrasted. The 

 branches of the fir gracefully depend, as if weighted 

 downwards by the burden of the heavy deep green 

 fringe they carry a fringe tipped with bullion in the 

 spring, for the young shoots are of so light a green as 

 to shade into a pale yellow. The branches of the 

 poplar, on the contrary, point upwards, growing 

 nearly vertically ; so that the outline of the tree re- 

 sembles the tip of an immensely exaggerated artist's 

 brush. This formation is ill adapted for nest-build- 

 ing, as it affords little or no surface to build on ; and 

 so the poplar is but seldom used by birds. 



The pool beneath is approached by a broad track 



