CHAPTER XXVI 



Autumn, 191 2 



Wells-next-the-Sea, as I have already said in a 

 chapter a long way back in this volume, is one of the 

 spots I love best to frequent in the autumn, chiefly 

 to see and hear the wild geese that winter there in 

 larger numbers than at any other point on the coast. 

 This season of 191 2 I had another object in going 

 thither ; there remained two or three weeks' work 

 to be done in order to complete this book ; and where, 

 flying from London, could one find a place more 

 admirably suited for such a purpose ? A small, 

 ancient, village-like town, set in a low flat land next 

 the sea, or separated from the sea by a mile-wide 

 marsh, grey in summer, but now rust-brown in its 

 autumnal colour. The fisher-folk are poor, and their 

 harvest consists mainly of shellfish, mussels, whelks, 

 clams, and they also dig at low water for sand-worms 

 to be sold for bait. They are, as I think I remarked 

 before, like their feathered fellow-creatures, the hooded 

 crows ; and indeed they resemble crows when seen, 

 small and black, scattered far out on the wide waste 

 of sand. When the men are away at sea and those 

 noisy little animals, the children, are shut up in school, 



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