December 1 



HE proper time for a bush walk just now is at five o'clock 

 in the morning ; so to-day, while the sun was still flinging 

 long shadows from the east, I was out in the garden ready for 

 my walk. The garden itself was not wanting in charms at 

 that early hour, with the bright faces of pansies smiling in a 

 row, and sweet peas scenting the air. I looked round the 

 beds hesitatingly. There was a good deal of delightful work 

 to be done, and for a moment I wondered if I should not stay. 



But only for a moment. A chirping note sounded behind 

 me, and I looked round from the pansies just in time to see a 

 Jacky Winter deposit a nice little moth in the wide-open bill of 

 its baby, who was sitting on my garden fence. With his 

 feathers loosely fluffed, the young bird looked big enough to 

 be taking care of himself, but the mottled head and breast 

 showed that ffe was. still only an infant. 



But, though he was only a very young bird, he was quite 

 big enough to make my decision for me. The pansies ind the 

 sweet peas were fascinating, but who could stay in an ordinary 

 garden when just a few minutes' walk away was a bush full of 

 fluffy, darling baby birds ! Not 1. Almost Ashamed of the 

 minutes I had already wasted, I hurried through the gate and 

 down the hill into the gu/lly. 



Oh, that gully! I almost had to shut my eyes as I came to 



