THE SANDPIPERS 



FRESH and sweet from its many springs among 

 the moors, where the Curlew and the Golden 

 Plover were nesting, the river came swiftly down 

 under the steep slopes of the hills ; pausing here 

 and there in a deep, dark pool under the trees, 

 into which the angler would wade silently to 

 throw his fly to the opposite bank, and then 

 hurrying on for a while in a rapid flow of con- 

 stant cheerful talk. Then making for the other 

 side of its valley, it quieted down again in another 

 deep pool of still water : and, as the valley opened 

 out, it too spread itself out over a pebbly bed, 

 welcoming here another stream that rushed down 

 from the hills to the west. 



Just here, where winter floods had left a wide 

 space of stones and rubbish between the water 

 and the fields, and before the river gathered itself 



E 2 



