THROUGH THE YEAR 27 



say " perhaps he attends to cheer her during her 

 work/' we are in danger of inventing for them motive 

 that is perhaps peculiar to ourselves. So far as we 

 can see not very far in such an affair the hen 

 would build her nest all as well and quickly if her 

 mate did not attend her. Yet this attention is so 

 constant, so invariable, that I hesitate to think it 

 can be of no use. " They also serve who only stand 

 and wait." 



ON THE BROWN MOOR 



In the heart of the brown moor, and the great, 

 oozy common that lies about it, is still the England 

 of a thousand years ago. Round barrows, piled by 

 the people of a bronze and stone age, dotted over 

 the dry parts of this true wilderness, are untouched. 

 No plough or harrow ever passed over them, even 

 when wheat was at eighty shillings the quarter ; 

 and nobody has come with pick and shovel to dig 

 into their strange treasuries of burnt earth and ash. 

 At the edge of the western part of the moor some 

 building and road-making work is going forward, 

 for the ground is high-lying and dry there, heather 

 and gorse growing on sand, and a greedy town 

 stretches out in that direction. Avenue this and 

 road that are named already, and a long, narrow 

 belt of peat and pine is doomed. 



It is curious to notice how the corn bunting 

 affects a piece of ruined ground like this, which 

 seems to prefer spots where Nature is unspoilt. I 

 heard its chirrup directly I got out of the suburbs, 



