4 BY MEADOW AND STREAM. 



standing by itself in a field a tiny green nest, amid 

 green leaves, invisible but to the inquisitive eyes of a 

 boy, 



" What nice hand, 



With every implement and means of art, 

 And twenty years' apprenticeship to boot, 

 Could make me such another ? " 



HURDIS. 



FIGHTING SHELLS. 



In the springtime we searched the hedgerows not 

 only for nests but for land shells " snails' houses " as 

 we called them not by any means with a scientific 

 motive. We knew all of them, it is true, that were 

 to be found on our farm, and we classified them, not 

 according to the proper order of the family Helicidce^ 

 but in strict recognition of their fighting qualities. 

 Those with the thickest and hardest points were classed 

 as A I, the rest were nowhere. The boy who possessed 

 a conquering shell, one that had smashed the tops of 

 all other shells in fair and honest fight, was regarded 

 as a conquering hero. 



FIGHTING NUTS. 



So, in the nutting season, we knew where to look 

 for, in hedge and coppice, the hardest kind of nuts 

 for pugilistic purposes. A hole carefully burnt 

 through the centre with a red-hot knitting-needle, a 

 strong piece of whipcord passed through it, with a 

 knot at the end to prevent it re-passing, a swinging 

 weapon was thus formed. Armed with this, two 

 boys would fight their nuts, each boy in turn placing 

 his stringed nut on the top of a felt hat or cap ; his 



