44 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



the labourer does not work in continued wet, and he is sure 

 of his night's rest. The keeper is often about the best part 

 of the night, and he cannot stay indoors because it rains. 



The woods are lovely in the sunshine of summer ; they 

 are full of charm when the leaves are bursting forth in 

 spring or turning brown with the early autumn frosts ; but 

 in wet weather in the winter they are the most wretched 

 places conceivable in which to stroll about. The dead 

 fern and the long grass are soaked with rain, and cling 

 round the ankles with depressing tenacity. Every now 

 and then the feet sink into soddened masses of decaying 

 leaves — a good deal, too, of the soil itself is soft and peaty, 

 being formed from the decomposed vegetation of years ; 

 while the boughs against which the passer-by must push 

 fly back and send a cold shower down the neck. In fog 

 as well as in rain the trees drip continuously ; the boughs 

 condense the mist and it falls in large drops — a puff of 

 wind brings down a tropical shower. 



In warm moist weather the damp steam that floats in 

 the atmosphere is the reverse of pleasant. But a thaw is 

 the worst of all, when the snow congealed on the branches 

 and against the trunks on the windward side, slips and 

 comes down in slushy, icy fragments, and the south-west 

 or south-east wind, laden with chilling moisture, penetrates 

 to the very marrow. Even Robin Hood is recorded to 

 have said that he could stand all kinds of weather with 

 impunity, except the wind which accompanies a thaw. 



