42 ON SURREY HILLS. 



ago, to keep cattle from roaming about the woods. 

 After a time seedling trees shoot and grow ; and 

 when these are large enough the woodman gives 

 them a cut in a slanting direction, and pegs them 

 down along the side of the bank. From them 

 fresh shoots come, so that after a time the bank is 

 bound in all directions. Fresh turf is placed over 

 the cut branches, and the whole grows ; there are 

 hazel-bushes on the top. No cattle can storm a 

 moorland splashed bank. 



There is a stile for chance wanderers this way, 

 and on it I rest for a time. The sun is well up in 

 the sky, and something within tells me breakfast 

 would be acceptable ; but I have four more miles 

 to walk before I can get it. My resting-place is 

 warm and pleasant. Other creatures find it so too, 

 and they come out to enjoy it. A rustle amongst 

 the dead leaves makes me look down. On the 

 mossy root of one of the hazels sits a dormouse 

 a beauty with a nut that he has brought from 

 his storehouse near. Not far above is his nest, 

 where he has slept through all the hard winter. 

 He is a bright, handsome little fellow, active as a 

 squirrel in his own domain amid the nut- bushes. 



