3 8 BY MEADOW AND STREAM. 



yards of me. It is delightful to hear the yellow- 

 hammer's song his only song : 



" A little bit of bread and no c h e e s e." 

 Or the skylark singing : 



" Up in the lift go we, 



Tehee, tehee, tehee, tehee ! 

 There's not a shoemaker on the earth 



Can make a shoe to me, to me ! 

 Why so? Why so? Why so ? 



Because my heel is as long as my toe." 



From Chambers, quoted by Swainson. 



On the 27th I went down again for a few hours' 

 fishing, but it came to nothing. It was a scorching 

 time. I did little but sit on the bench in the shade of 

 our beautiful May-tree watching and waiting for a 

 rise. Water as clear as crystal, reflecting with perfect 

 distinctness streaks of blue sky and flitting white 

 clouds not a May-fly or insect of any kind was to be 

 seen on the placid surface, which was never disturbed 

 by the slightest motion of a fish. Sedgebirds twitter- 

 ing in the reeds, rooks cawing in the trees, waiting to 

 come down to the lush water meadows from which 

 my presence kept them away, peewits floating about 

 overhead, chaffinches and robins singing in the woods, 

 starlings feeding their young ones in the trees ; a 

 gentle north-west breeze blowing ; fishing a useless 

 waste of strength. Yonder as pleasant a sight as 

 any of the pleasant sights around comes a boy with 

 a basket filled with good things specially intended for 

 consumption in the straw-covered cabin sacred to 

 piscators. 



For my own part I repeat what I have said before, 



