140 WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



il I will say good morning to you here ; but, 

 mind you, don't say anything to master about 

 trout." 



And now we are in the meadows, where the 

 stream runs through. You can see at a glance it 

 is only reclaimed moorland. The turf is mossy 

 and springs from under the foot ; if you pull up 

 some, peat shows at once, full of fine fibre. Alder- 

 bushes are dotted here and there, and clumps of 

 rushes all over the surface. From the stream run 

 little dykes in various directions through the mea- 

 dows, where some time or other water-cress has 

 been grown. Walking on we see something spring 

 up before us with a whip -whip- whip ! Our first 

 thought is that the place is alive with young snipe : 

 ridiculous idea ! for they are but frogs, the very 

 princes of their family, however : never before have 

 we seen such splendid specimens. They are of 

 a rich sienna yellow, spotted and streaked with 

 purple-brown, and very large in size, and they look 

 more like snipe than frogs as they leap from the 

 ground. They jump like kangaroos. Strange to 

 say, you do not find them near the water, but in 



