CHAPTER IV 



THE KEEPER OF THE SPRING-HOUSE 



Directly in front of a new summer hotel on 

 a hill, and across a public road on the margin of 

 the lake, was a cheap and impromptu spring 

 house. 



It had a gabled roof, was about six by eight 

 in size, and was closed in with lattice work, with 

 the exception of a place for a door on the road 

 side. The simple affair was scarcely finished, 

 when the roof was taken possession of by a Belted 

 Kingfisher, who became known somewhat widely 

 as "The Keeper of the Spring-house," the name 

 probably growing out of the fact that he was 

 rarely caught off duty, from early spring till late 

 in the fall. In a figurative way, it might be said 

 of him that he both opened and closed the season ; 

 arriving ahead of the south wind and the first 

 shy violets, rollicking through the summer and 

 painted October, and saying a reluctant farewell 

 when the north wind chased a cloud of reluctant 

 snow flakes into the black and sullen waters of 

 the lake. 



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