CHAPTER XII. 



The ash copse The nightingale Cloud of starlings Hedgehogs 

 Heron's mead Moor -hens Among the reeds. 



A GAP in the hedge by Hazel Corner leads through 

 a fringe of hawthorn bushes into the ash copse. 

 There is a gate at a little distance ; but somehow it 

 is always more pleasant to follow the byway of the 

 gap, where two steps, one down into the ditch, or rather 

 on to the heap of sand thrown out from a rabbit bury, 

 and one up on the mound, carry you from the meadow 

 out of cultivation into the pathless wood. The 

 green sprays momentarily pushed aside close imme- 

 diately behind, shutting out the vision, and with it 

 the thought of civilization. These boughs are the 

 gates of another world. Under trees and leaves it 

 is so, too, sometimes even in an avenue where the 

 direct rays of the sun do not penetrate, there is ever 

 a subdued light ; it is not shadow, but a light toned 

 with green. 



In spring the ground here is hidden by a verdant 

 growth, out of which presently the anemone lifts its 

 chaste flower. Then the wild hyacinths hang their blue 

 bells so thickly that, glancing between the poles, it is 



