VI 



SEDGE-WARBLER AND 

 THE EEL 



THE burn is in spate. It swirls round a 

 sharp curve, then sweeps on its course, 

 with occasional eddies. A burn is not 

 a river, nor the miniature of a river. 

 It is to a river as childhood is to maturity. Its 

 changes of mood are sudden. It is volatile. It 

 plays as children play. And this afternoon it is 

 having a fit of temper. It has for us much of the 

 interest we feel in childhood. 



It is very brown. The sides fall in to make it 

 browner. The worst is past. Against the far 

 bank the level is sinking. In the gleams of sun- 

 shine it is like a child smiling itself back into good 

 humour. A dipper is flying up and down, lighting, 

 for a little, on the alder branch, where it bobs 

 impatiently. Its perch on the boulder is out of 

 sight ; the larder at the bottom is closed. It is 

 fain to drop down where the bank softens into a 

 sandy or gravelly stretch for such larvae as are 

 left by the shrinking water. Though birds like to 

 feed in their own way. Sweeter is that brought 



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