102 , . . JN .THE GREN LEAF 



L Those rich-left heirs, that let their fathers lie 

 Without a monument !) bring thee all this ; 

 Yea, and furred moss besides, when flowers are none 

 To winter-ground thy corse." 



To this day the bird is held free from harm ; 

 no one dreams of such a crime as hurting 

 Robin, for it is said that it is he who visits 

 the lonely God's Acre, on and under the hills, 

 when they are shrouded in snow, to sing over 

 little children's graves. 



It was a wild spot, out away from all hail, 

 let what danger would come. All you could 

 do was to fight hard, and make the best of 

 it, if the worst came to you. The gorge I 

 have in my mind's eye, when last I saw it, 

 was partly choked up with tangle of a very 

 rough description ; and ragged Scotch firs 

 lined the banks on either side of the hollow 

 which led down the hills for a long way. The 

 reason why I explored a bit up this place, 

 lonely as it was, was that quite accidentally 

 I had heard that a creature like a polecat, 

 but larger, indeed (and if it was a polecat, it 

 was the largest one that they had ever seen), 

 frequented that worked- out ironstone hollow. 

 As the two men, who had for a short time 

 been felling timber near the hollow, were 



