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not even try to resist; and without fixed 

 purpose I sprang down from the bridge 

 and gave chase, not to the birds them- 

 selves, — the pursuit was of two shimmering 

 phantoms, and they lured me on and on, 

 — not with any particular desire to shoot, 

 but only to go up the stream, away from 

 the road, into a new, untrodden place, 

 where something indescribable, yet very 

 real, something I liked beyond expression, 

 lingered and wavered and shone. 



I had proceeded up the way of the brook 

 not more than two hundred yards, when I 

 saw my two birds side by side on a little 

 spit in the middle of the current. They 

 were odd-looking forms — small bodies on 

 long, stiffly set legs. Under them in the 

 water stood inverted duplicates, and be- 

 hind them sparkled the wavy reach of clear 

 brook-bosom, which seemed to impart its 

 tricksy motion to their wings and necks. 

 These aquatic birds certainly have pecu- 

 liarities like those of water; the kinship of 

 life and its habitat is one of nature's open 

 secrets. 



Instantly my dreamy spell dissolved, as 

 237 



