Tree-Shooting 39 



are fond of sitting out in such cover near it. A low 

 railing enclosed the side towards me : the posts had 

 slipped by the giving way of the soil, and hung over 

 the still pool. 



One of the rails — of willow — was eaten out into 

 hollow cavities by the wasps, which came to it 

 generation after generation for the materials of their 

 nests. The particles they detach are formed into a 

 kind of paste or paper : in time they will quite 

 honeycomb a pole. The third side of the pond 

 shelved to the ' leaze,' that the cattle might drink. 

 From it a narrow track went across the broad field 

 up the rising ground to the distant gateway leading 

 to the meadows, where they grazed on the aftermath. 

 Marching day by day, one after the other in single 

 file, to the drinking-place, the hoofs of the herd had 

 cut a clean path in the turf, two or three inches deep 

 and trodden hard. The reddish soil thus exposed 

 marked the winding line athwart the field, through 

 the tussocky bunches. 



By the pond stood a low three-sided merestone 

 or landmark, the initials on which were hidden under 

 moss. Up in the tree, near the gun, there was a 

 dead branch that had decayed in the curious manner 

 that seems peculiar to oak. Where it joined the 

 trunk the bark still remained, though covered with 



