UPON A DAY 



223 



-^^^^^^Sy.^ 



that now seems so deserted, was an animated scene 

 just before you came along. It is your voice, your 

 tread, your shadow, and (forgive me, dear reader) 

 your smell, that have wrought the change ; even 1 

 though, as is most improbable, the jays did not see 

 you, and scream danger ahead. But, back to the 

 cedars. 



Lie down with the tent-dweller flat on the ground, 

 and look steadily into this deep, dark pool — deep, that 

 is, relatively. It seems at first to be quite empty — 

 quite fathomless. But soon the bottom grows dis- 

 tinct, and certain little rays of light are seen glancing 

 on stones and roots, and water-grass that moves in 

 waving tresses. And presently a creature, scarlet and CiicJcjLL 

 blue, and of any and every tint between these two, as 

 the light takes it, comes into view. It is a male 

 stickleback. He is keeping guard over his nest — that 

 small, irregular bunch of weed, in the middle of which 

 his partner and her eggs are hidden. It is only at this 

 season that he is gorgeous in his suit of scintillating 

 armour. And so he keeps his watch — a perfect 

 Paladin — and so he holds the field against all comers, 

 secure in his suit of armour and his bristling spines. 

 And then, with a sound of rushing wind, a wood- 

 pigeon drops down to drink. 



Tve^ 



^7. 



