22 DAYS STOLEN FOB SPORT 



showed his glittering plumage above the bracken 

 as they made flying efforts to get a weight into 

 their spurs that should equal their furious jealousy. 

 Female witnesses of the encounter were moving 

 the green curtain that hid them, and now and then 

 we heard cackles that would urge their lords to kill 

 or die, and they would have so fought had we not 

 gone forward and separated the would-be murderers 

 by throwing up our arms and crying Shoo ! Shoo ! 



The distorted features of the bleeding birds quite 

 untuned us for seeing fairies, so we retreated to the 

 brook. There we found a path, but it soon grew 

 less and less defined and then ended in prickly furze 

 and sharp-toothed brambles that sometimes held us 

 prisoners. Even the holland frock was pierced and 

 held until rescued, but it came through its many 

 battles with fewer wounds than my woollen cloth. 



Many times that day a funnel-shaped needlecase 

 was opened and held so that the heads came down 

 it for the choosing of the right size and when all was 

 ready I was ordered to take first one position and 

 then another as best suited the necessary operations. 

 The position I liked the least was that from which I 

 could not see the rent nor its repairer and could only 

 guess its measure from the time I had to lie with my 

 nose tickled by the grasses. 



When the stream was hidden its varying voice 

 came up to tell us the nature of its channel. Some- 

 times hopeful gurglings came so invitingly that I had 

 to break my way through all impediments and 

 scramble down high banks clothed with ferns of 

 numerous varieties. These had grown to great 

 perfection under the fostering shade of overhanging 

 boughs that had a dome above of huge limbs of 



