THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FAEM. 293 



hatched, in and out of which it runs this morning quite 

 lively, but with a lazy, listening look, such as one might 

 imagine a gipsy-lad would wear if caught, upon the sud- 

 den skedaddle of poaching parents, and introduced by 

 his captor to the mercies of the village dame. 



I've been roaming, I've been roaming where the meadow grass is sweet ; 

 And I'm coming, and I'm coming with the dew upon my feet ! 



This means, under exceedingly strong metaphorical 

 language, that I went down upon the occurrence of the 

 thaw to inspect the condition of our river bank, and to 

 note what effect the drifting ice might have upon the 

 protective piers, the history of which I have in these 

 columns gradually detailed. They have now been 

 proved to be such a thorough success that I have the 

 greatest satisfaction in explaining minutely, for the 

 benefit and guidance of those amongst your readers who 

 may desire to save a swiftly-wasting bank from the 

 undermining action of an insidious stream, not only the 

 several points in which our plan has answered, but also 

 the weak points that we have had to mend. In the 

 first instance, every river-wise person that we met or 

 spoke to when our project was in embryo said that what 

 we had to do to save the bank was to plant " sallies " — 

 that is, willow cuttings — along it, mentioning several 

 instances of very successfully encouraged accumulation 

 at several turns of the liver. They always overlooked 

 the fact that in each of these cases the gathering took 

 place upon the slack, not the current side of the stream. 

 There where the weaker water rested it was only too 

 glad to have anything, stick or stone, to cling by or lean 

 against, and let the mud drain out of its shoes. But 

 upon the other side where the stream was wearing 



