Source of a Brook. 59 
pieces to discover—nothing ; it is empty. He will 
carry the fragments home to the farm, when, after a 
moment’s curiosity, they will be thrown aside with 
potsherds, and finally used to mend the floor of the 
cowpen, The track winds away yet further, over hill 
after hill; but a summer’s day is not long enough to 
trace it to the end. 
In the narrow valley, far below the frowning 
ramparts of the ancient fort that has been more 
specially described, a beautiful spring breaks forth. 
Three irregularly circular green spots, brighter in 
colour than the dry herbage around, mark the out- 
lets of the crevices in the earth through which the 
clear water finds its way to the surface. Three tiny 
threads of water, each accompanied by its riband of 
verdant grasses, meander downwards some few yards, 
and then unite and form a little stream. Then the 
water in its channel first becomes visible,.glistening 
in the sun; for at the sources the aquatic grasses bend 
over, growing thickly, and hide it from view. But 
pressing these down, and parting them with the hand, 
you may trace the exact place where it rises, gently 
oozing forth without a sound. 
Lower down, where the streamlet is stronger and 
has worn a groove—now rushing over a floor of tiny 
flints, now partly buoyed up and chafing against a 
smooth round lump of rubble—there is a pleasant 
murmur audible at a short distance. Still farther 
from the source, where, grown wider, the shallow 
