230 More Tales of the Birds 



cat the Poet stole downstairs again, replaced 

 the gun on the table, and returned swiftly with 

 a field-glass, which now showed him, as he 

 expected, the grey-black plumage and white 

 crescent of a Ring-ousel. Little did that wan- 

 dering stranger, so happy in the discovery, here 

 in the far south, of its beloved northern berries, 

 imagine that its voice had saved the Poet's hands 

 from bloodshed, and his mind from a lifelong 

 remorse ! 



He knelt long at the window, watching the 

 berries disappear without demur, dreaming of 

 rushing streams and purple heather, and wel- 

 coming in his heart the stranger to the feast. 

 Then rousing himself he fetched his wife to 

 share his pleasure, and told her of his boyhood 

 among the moors, and of the Ring-ousel's nest 

 found in the gorsebush as he was fishing in the 

 tumbling beck. And then he told her of the 

 air-gun and she told him of the conspiracy. 



From that moment peace returned to the gar- 

 den and to the Poet's mind. All day long they 

 heard and saw the Ring-ousel, who could not 

 find it in his heart to leave the berries, and 



