The Lark's Nest 



Next day the weather was worse, though the 

 fog had cleared away ; and in the afternoon it 

 began to rain. Long before sunset the Larks 

 began to hear once more the rumbling of 

 waggons and the trampling of horses ; they 

 seemed to be all coming back again, for the 

 noise grew louder and louder. Each time the 

 cock bird returned from a flight, or brought food 

 to his wife, he looked, in spite of himself, a little 

 graver. But she sat close, only starting once 

 or twice from the nest when the distant crack 

 of a gun was heard. 



"Sit close, sit close," said her consort, "and 

 remember that the way to get shot is to leave 

 the nest. We are perfectly safe here, and I will 

 be hiding in the bank at hand, if any danger 

 should threaten." 



As he spoke, men passed along the track ; 

 then more, and others on the grass on each side 

 of it. Then that dread rumbling grew nearer, 

 and a medley of sounds, the cracking of whips, 

 the clanging of metal, the hoarse voices of tired 

 men, began to grow around them on every side. 

 Once or twice, as it began to grow dusk, men 



