104 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



Then, having got what he wanted, he left the quarry 

 and looked for stone elsewhere, leaving an unsightly 

 hollow, filled with spoil and rubbish a blot upon the 

 landscape. 



But another worker was ready to continue the task. 

 Nature stepped in when man stepped out, and with an 

 ordered disorder began to heal. The pine-needles dropped 

 from the firs above, the browning wind-drifted beech 

 leaves found refuge in the bottom from the blast, the 

 winged sycamore seeds whirled through the air, the 

 elderberries rolled down the slope. Paper rotted, and the 

 mice tore it up to line their grass nests ; mould and fungus 

 devoured the dead wood, and even the despised wood-louse 

 did its share; leaves and the earthworms buried the glass, 

 pot, and iron. Winter storms shattered the deserted 

 sheds ; props gave way and allowed great masses of earth 

 to fall on the discarded stone; earth and moss, living 

 green cushions, filled in the unsightly tool wounds. In 

 spring the nettles appeared, and sapling sycamores and 

 elders, and even tiny birches, pushed their way through 

 the earth; grass grew over the road, and the brambles 

 and wild roses sent trailing prickly stems in all directions ; 

 honeysuckle and ivy climbed and trailed, holding alike 

 to rock and to the growing vegetation. 



Season followed season, year succeeded year, each 

 bringing marked changes, evidence of growth, and now 

 we look into the old quarry and say that it is beautiful 

 Those rough, weathered grey rocks with a ruddy tinge 

 here and there are covered with lovely lichens and mosses. 

 The sunlight only reaches the depths of the quarry through 

 the overhanging foliage, and dapples the thick mass of 

 elders and sycamores in the hollow with shivering light 

 and shade. The evergreen ivy carpets the ground and 

 old spoil bank, climbs the birches, and mounts the wall. 

 Half-way up gorse has found a lodgment, covering the 



