CHAPTER XII 



COUNTRY RAMBLES, 1909-1911 



Country rambles A beautiful toad A stag-beetle A 

 seven-mile walk In the woods The angler and 

 weasels The fool and the fly Life and adventures 

 of a yellow-hammer An urchin would a- wooing go. 



A BEAUTIFUL toad " ugly and venomous " he 

 may be, yet he looked quite beautiful, with a 

 whole Chinese alphabet scored on his back 

 was sitting squat on his haunches beside his 

 hole, basking in the summer sun like an alder- 

 man after a substantial lunch, philosophically 

 contemplating the pleasant scenery surrounding 

 him. His serenity was rudely disturbed. 

 Suddenly a great stag-beetle dropped from 

 somewhere and sat down beside him, and fixed 

 him with his glittering eyes. You would think 



that he had never, in his walks abroad, met 

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