The Toad does good Service 153 



quently find the eggs of snakes. These creatures now and 

 then get inside farmhouses, whose floors are generally on a 

 level with the surface of the earth or nearly so. They 

 have been found in the clockcase the old upright eight- 

 day clock, standing on the floor ; they come after the frogs 

 that enter at the doors always wide open in summer 

 and are supposed also to eat crumbs. 



In the cellar there is sure to be a toad under the 

 barrels on the cool stone-flags ; in the garden there is 

 another, purposely kept in the cucumber-frame to protect 

 the plant from being eaten by creeping things. It is 

 curious to notice that they both seem to flourish equally 

 well one in the coolest, the other in the hottest place. A 

 third may generally be found in the strawberry-bed. 

 Strawberries are much eaten by insects of many kinds ; so 

 that the toad really does good service in a garden. 



In winter, when snow is on the ground, a few larks 

 sometimes venture into the garden where anything green 

 yet shows above the white covering on the patches. If 

 the weather is severe, the moorhen will come up from the 

 brook, though two fields distant, in the night, and the 

 marks of her feet may be traced round the house. Then, 

 as the evening approaches, the wild ducks pass over, and 

 every now and then during the night the weird cries of 

 waterfowl resound in the frosty air. The heron sails 

 slowly over, every night and every morning, backwards 

 and forwards from the mere to the water-meadows and the 

 brook, uttering his unearthly call at intervals. 



