294 THE PARENT AND HEE YOUNG. [CHAP. iv. 



are swimming jerkingly across, nodding their heads as 

 they go to join company again with the dozing Ducks, 

 where I first saw them. What can they be? But 

 here comes our friend." 



In the evening a walk in the garden is proposed. 

 Twilight is coming on. The garden skirts the water, 

 which is in places overhung by trees whose branches 

 feather down and droop to the very surface. " What 

 a splash was that! you have some large fish here." 

 Yes, and you shall hear more about them by-and-by ; 

 but that was no fish, unless perhaps a flying-fish ; for 

 see ! there it goes, round the horse-chesnut at the corner; 

 and I need not tell you to listen to the strange noises. 

 Our children are all in bed, or ought to be, so it is not 

 their rattle or penny-trumpet which you hear, but the 

 Hen bird calling her young ones to a place of refuge ; 

 and look, there go the little things like black red-nosed 

 mice on two legs (for they are covered with thick fur 

 like that of a water rat, rather than with down, to keep 

 out the water), running over the weeds which you so 

 much dislike, and, you see, where there is an interval 

 between the leaves of only two inches square, some of 

 them are diving with the decision of a whale that is 

 astonished to feel a harpoon sticking between his ribs, 

 and they have taken this mode of disappearance as 

 much a matter of course as the ghost does, who goes 

 down the accustomed stage-trap on the hundredth night 

 of a successful melodrama. On the water, over the 

 water, under the water, are all the same to them. The 

 young cannot fly at present, but will very soon. By this 

 time they have all joined their parent on the island. It is 

 of no use trying to follow them there. They are already 

 much more cunning than you or I. And, my friend, 



