MARCH 67 



behind, ye see, and it's only plain justice we're wanting 

 now.' 



' Well, there is this difference, Mr. ,' I argued. ' So 



far as I understand, there is no danger of Catholics being 

 exterminated in Ireland, whereas it is a matter of life and 

 death with my little wren.' 



' Ah well, Sir Herbert,' he answered laughing ; ' as you 

 put it so pleasantly, it 's not meself will stand in the way 

 of your bill.' 



And so the fight was won ; the bill went through all its 

 stages nemine contradicente, and if there be any wrens 

 still fluttering about the caves of St. Kilda, they do so 

 under the segis of the law. 



XIX 



Not cockcrow nor the robin's wintry trill is a sound 

 more closely associated with English homesteads 

 and Scottish ' policies ' than is the cawing of and their 

 rooks. All of us, however unconsciously, love Morals 

 to listen to it, for it brings to mind two periods peculiarly 

 delectable in country life the annual period of energy, 

 windy March weather when the rooks are busy among 

 the bare, swaying boughs ; and the daily period of cessa- 

 tion from toil, when the labourer wends homeward, and 

 overhead the sable throng fills the air with soothing 

 clamour. Nevertheless the popularity of the rook has 

 been seriously undermined of late years. Farmers and 

 sportsmen, combined for once in a common object, have 

 declared war against him, and his unfeathered champions 

 have been hard pressed in maintaining his defence. 

 Farmers' clubs in the north have proscribed rooks because 



