VARIED SOUND 229 



ashes seem mean and paltry in the midst of calm 

 beauty like the night. 



But listen ! Once again there is a slowly re- 

 peated sound that comes at regular intervals from 

 the far side of the brook, only a few yards away. 

 Our minds are so filled with war news and artillery 

 fire that it is difficult to descend to so ordinary 

 an object as a cow and its munching, which is 

 most clearly what the noise represents. " Do 

 they still munch, even at night out in a field ? " 

 whispers a student, and my friend, who is a woman- 

 farmer, assures us that they do. 



These night watches are surprising because a 

 place that is familiar in daylight seems totally 

 transformed when the sun is not there to show it 

 as it is known best to us. During moments of 

 intent listening, whilst heavy clouds of mist that 

 have been folded over the hills are rolled back- 

 ward at the commencement of early dawn, we 

 learn how rabbits leisurely sit nibbling in the 

 middle of the grass walk, how a partridge and her 

 brood come hurriedly from thick undergrowth, 

 hoping to get food and have time to conceal them- 

 selves before the gardeners begin work, how other 

 birds burst into happy song and thrushes lightly 

 hop on to the gay herbaceous borders. In short, 

 it seems as if all were crying out, " The land is 

 ours, let us enjoy ourselves ; those lazy human 

 beings are not yet astir, to interrupt us." 



But our watchfulness was not rewarded by de- 

 tecting the thief, and although we wandered at 

 intervals round vegetable plots and orchards, we 

 only came across detachments of other watchers, 



