240 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



and play tricks as of yore. She has not yet, however, 

 precipitated young Yulcan ; for I insist upon his having 

 a roll of cloth before him on the saddle. I think that, 

 after all, I shall convert her into a brood mare, being 

 by that rare stout sire Daniel O'Rourke. 



We are much interested in a railway tunnel which is 

 being driven through the hill which I have often men- 

 tioned as being of a composite order, and, by its outer 

 coating of pudding stone and inward limestone, sug- 

 gesting the idea of having been once at the bottom of 

 the sea. As yet, however, there have been no wonders 

 developed : only strata of plain sandstone have been 

 cut through. The coverts where the pheasants build 

 being interdicted ground to the youngsters, it is aston- 

 ishing what a number of small birds have elected to 

 build within the shelter of these bushes. I don't know 

 what the boys wouldn't give to maraud there ! There 

 is a pair of kingfishers close at hand, too, the where- 

 abouts of whose nest is a waking care to them. I could 

 not imagine how my hurdles got stuck about the 

 orchards in every direction. One day I found a little 

 boy hauling one upon his back along, which I observed 

 him set against a tree. He then climbed it, managing 

 thereby to reach the first branch, and was soon explor- 

 ing the topmost. 



I thought I saw an otter the other day with his nose 

 just above water, and his soft lithe figure occasionally 

 undulating with the stream. I approached on tiptoe. 

 It was the brown leaf of a water-lily which we planted 

 last year bobbing in the current, and the stem we saw 

 waving below. We hope to naturalize them in the 

 Wye if stupid tourists would only let the blossom alone 

 now at first. 



