The Amateur Poacher 



the ground. Then the grass-blades rise up level with 

 the forehead. There is a delicious smell in growing 

 grass, and a sweetness comes up from the earth. 



Still it got hotter and hotter ; and it was not 

 possible to move in the least degree, lest a brown 

 creature sitting on the sand at the mouth of his hole, 

 and hidden himself by the fern, should immediately 

 note it. And Orion was waiting in the rickyard for 

 the sound of the report, and very likely the shepherd 

 too. We knew that men in Africa, watched by lions, 

 had kept still in the sunshine till, reflected from the 

 rock, it literally scorched them, not daring to move ; 

 and we knew all about the stoicism of the Red 

 Indians. But Ulysses was ever my pattern and 

 model : that man of infinite patience and resource. 



So, though the sun might burn and the air 

 become suffocating in that close corner, and the 

 quivering line of heat across the meadow make the 

 eyes dizzy to watch, yet not a limb must be moved. 

 The black flies came in crowds ; but they are not so 

 tormenting if you plunge your face in the grass, 

 though they titillate the back of the hand as they run 

 over it. Under the bramble bush was a bury that did 

 not look much used ; and once or twice a great blue 

 fly came out of it, the buzz at first sounding hollow 

 and afar off and becoming clearer as it approached 



