THE HAUNTS OF COOT AND HERON 101 



fellows in competitive examinations ; you may 

 climb up the ladder of life two steps at a time ; you 

 may woo and wed the woman you love ; you may 

 even publish your first book and read the reviews 

 of it. But never will you be any happier than that. 

 The sun has warmed the shingle when we return 

 to it again. The steam appears to have ceased to rise 

 from the water : it has only become invisible in 

 the warmer air. The wood-pigeons have left off 

 calling to each other, and are flitting to and fro in 

 the neighbourhood of their nests. The perch are 

 already chasing their own offspring near the surface, 

 the httle fugitives at times jumping clear out of the 

 water to escape capture, and falling back again with 

 a sound as if a handful of fine gravel had been 

 thrown into the deep. Hark ! over the water comes 

 the only sound from the outer world which reaches 

 these sohtudes — the faint tinkle of the morning bell 

 calling the toilers to work in the distant quarry in 

 the hiUs. The long, still, early summer morning, 

 when all wild nature lives and moves, is waning at 

 last. The day has begun. 



