XI. 



IRfng of jftebes." 



THIS morning, a walk through the woods will give us 

 an appetite for breakfast, and start us fairly, perchance, 

 on the spending of at least one holiday. I can pro- 

 mise you a fair prospect in so far as the walk itself 

 is concerned, with something interesting at the end of 

 our stroll. The woods this morning are redolent of 

 balsamic odours, for which we have to thank the tall 

 pines and firs that, like sable mourners draped in 

 plumes, flank the pathway for half a mile or more. 



Every leaf glistens with the jewels of the dew, and 

 these " top lights," as an artist friend calls them, 

 which the sunlight throws down from above, and from 

 among the thick mass of overhanging foliage, make 

 the vista before us seem almost interminable such 

 is the marvellous effect of light and shade cunningly 

 interspersed. The bracken forms the undergrowth of 

 the woods, and gives covert and concealment to the 

 hosts of rabbits that swarm in the plantations around. 

 Beyond the edge of the wood, parallel to the pathway 

 we are treading, lies the frith. 



You note this arm of the sea, appearing in all sorts 

 of odd corners and ways, as you ramble through the 

 fine old woods. Now and then, through some sudden 

 crevice or break in the screen formed by leaf and stem, 



