OLD HEDGEROWS. 65 



things have their travelling lines, and so well at 

 one time was this known that they were looked for 

 in certain haunts almost to a day, if the weather had 

 been right for them. The great hedges of the grass- 

 meadows, and the corn-fields that adjoined, had 

 strips of rough coarse grass and scrub on each side 

 of them, dented in by the hoofs of cattle on one 

 side and of horses on the other. When the acorns 

 fell, the pigs that were turned out did not pick them 

 all up, nor did the rooks, with all their hunting ; for 

 thousands fall and drop into hoof-prints, get covered 

 with leaves there, and are passed over. It is the 

 same with grain in the corn-fields : when the fields 

 are carried, a countless quantity of grains drop from 

 the ears, and are stamped into the furrows by the 

 horses' feet, to be rolled in by the waggon-wheels 

 clean out of sight of all creatures, if the fields remain 

 fallow. When the rain falls after proper autumn 

 weather has been and gone the furrows, if the rains 

 have been heavy, run with water. Then the wild 

 ducks come and dabble, spatter, spatter, spatter ! up 

 and down the furrows. They sift the grain out ; 

 their bills are formed for that. The holes under the 

 trees, also, where the acorns have fallen, get filled 



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