86 SPRING-TIDE. 



acrass the bruk, when, jist as a'd got to 

 th' middle, up cum'd a pur o' jaaws as big 

 as a gray-hound's, and down went the rat 

 in a minnit ! Owld lies once cot a pike, 

 and when a aupened hin a found a girt rat, 

 dree callow wablins, part of a good-sized 

 vish, and two other thengs as um couldn't 

 quite make out. 



S. Ay, I remember that fish being caught 

 and cut open. The " dree callow wablins " 

 were the three unfledged nestlings of a yel- 

 low-hammer, and the wonder was how the 

 creature had obtained them. The country- 

 people, knowing that the yellow-hammer 

 is a careless builder, and chooses a very low 

 situation for its nest, supposed the pike had 

 invaded it and kidnapped the young brood ; 

 but it is not improbable that some ruthless 

 urchins had been a bird's nesting, and plun- 

 dered a nest of its callow inmates, which 

 they afterwards threw into the river, where 

 they were, of course, soon appropriated. 



