10 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



a shepherd, ditto dog and sheep, and liberty to 

 range where you please just as freely as if you 

 were lord of the soil and tenant as well. Do you 

 like to be perched up ever so high and play at a 

 game of geography, endeavouring to give a name 

 to the hamlets and commons, hills and pools, 

 churches and woods you see dotted about away 

 out on the weald, and mentally follow up the 

 roads streaking the real visible map plan ? I do. 

 I dearly love this diversion, even to the extent of 

 taking interest in a cloud of dust, which tells you 

 that sheep are on the move along the far-away 

 road. 



Does it give you pleasure to watch the sly 

 squirrels peeping at you from the other side of 

 tree holes, and the young rabbits settling down 

 to play after you have been still a little while, 

 just as if you were not there at all, or, being 

 there, didn't count? Is it a delight to follow the 

 course of the fleecy clouds, some of them scraping 

 the hills and on occasions illustrating the manu- 

 facture of Scotch mist, or on a bright day mark 

 their progress across the low lands as their sheet 

 of shadow runs over the landscape ? Can the 

 birds' little ways charm you ? Do you like to be 

 ** chatted " at by little 'uns of that nature and 

 practice, or scolded by the jackdaws from the old 

 chalk-pits, or made funny noises at by stray 

 pheasants, or whirred at by partridges, some of 

 them young 'uns already nearly as big as their 

 fathers ? I do, I assure you, derive much satis- 

 faction from all these matters, and that was partly 

 the reason why I was so charmed to find that I 

 was only suffering from a heavy attack of 

 thunderbolts, and was otherwise all right, so that 

 I was not to scare myself out of coming again. 



