6 THE OPEN AIR. 



friend wanted to go to the house because there was a 

 pear quite ripe there on the wall. Next came a moth, 

 and after the moth a golden fly, and three gnats, and 

 a mouse ran along the dry ground with a curious 

 sniffling rustle close to Guido. A shrill cry came 

 down out of the air, and looking up he saw two swifts 

 turning circles, and as they passed each other they 

 shrieked — their voices were so shrill they shrieked. 

 They were only saying that in a month their little 

 swifts in the slates would be able to fly. While he 

 sat so quiet on the ground and hidden by the wheat, 

 he heard a cuckoo such a long way off it sounded like 

 a watch when it is covered up. " Cuckoo " did not 

 come full and distinct — it was such a tiny little 

 ** cuckoo " caught in the hollow of Guido's ear. The 

 cuckoo must have been a mile away. 



Suddenly he thought something went over, and 

 yet he did not see it — perhaps it was the shadow 

 — and he looked up and saw a large bird not very 

 far up, not farther than he could fling, or shoot 

 his arrows, and the bird was fluttering his wings, 

 but did not move away farther, as if he had been 

 tied in .the air. Guido knew it was a hawk, and 

 the hawk w^as staying there to see if there was a 

 mouse or a little bird in the wheat. After a minute 

 the hawk stopped fluttering and lifted his wings 

 together as a butterfly does when he shuts his, and 

 down the hawk came, straight into the corn. *' Go 

 away ! " shouted Guido jumping up, and flinging his 

 cap, and the hawk, dreadfully frightened and terribly 

 cross, checked himself and rose again with an angry 

 rush. So the mouse escaped, but Guido could not 



