Where the Two Brooks meet 197 



dead leaves slowly rotating under the surface where the 

 swirl of the meeting currents, one swift and shallow, the 

 other deeper and stronger, has scooped out a basin. A 

 waving line upon the surface marks where the two streams 

 shoulder each other and strive for mastery, and its curve, 

 yielding now to this side, now to that, responds to their 

 varying volume and weight. While the under-currents 

 sweep ever slowly round, whirling leaf and dead black 

 soddened twigs over the hollow, the upper streams are 

 forced together unwillingly by the narrowing shores, and 

 throw themselves with a bubbling rush onwards. Through 

 the brown water, from under the stooping willow whose 

 age bows it feebly, there shine now and again silvery 

 streaks deep down as the roach play to and fro. There, 

 too, come the perch ; they are waiting for the insects fall- 

 ing off the willows and the bushes, and for the food brought 

 down by the streams. 



' Hush ! ' it is the rustle of the reeds, their heads are 

 swaying a reddish brown now, later on in the year a 

 delicate feathery white. Seen from beneath, their slender 

 tips, as they gracefully sweep to and fro, seem to trace 

 designs upon the blue dome of the sky. A whispering in 

 the reeds and tall grasses ; a faint murmuring of the 

 waters : yonder, across the broad water-meadow, a yellow 

 haze hiding the elms. 



In the nooks and corners on the left side of the mead 

 the hemlock rears its sickly-looking stem ; the mound is 

 broad and high, and thickly covered with grasses, for the 

 most part dead and dry. These form a warm cover for 

 the fox : there is usually one hiding somewhere here, 

 the mead being so quiet. Where the ground is often 

 flooded watercress has spread out into the grass, growing 

 so profusely that now the water is low it might be mown 



