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HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



Ovington we sat down to rest and to enjoy a gleam of 

 sunshine which happened to visit the world about noon 

 that day. We sat down on a little wooden bridge over 

 the main current and fell to watching the swifts, which 

 were abundant, flying up and down just over our heads 

 and, swift-like, paying no more heed to us than if we 



had been three wooden posts or three cows. We 

 noticed that ephemerae of three or four species were 

 rising up, and, borne by a light wind, drifting down- 

 stream towards us and past us; and after watching 

 these flies for some time we found that not one of them 

 escaped. Small and grey, or dun, or water-coloured 

 and well-nigh invisible, or large and yellow and con- 

 spicuous as they rose and slowly fluttered over the 



