An Ivy-grown Gable. 155 
they settle on the house more frequently than when 
it is bright and sunny. 
At one end of the farmhouse, which is an irregular 
building, there is a quiet gable, and in it a casement 
arched over by the thatch, and shaded by a thick 
growth of ivy. The casement is low, and not more 
than eight or nine feet from the ground; the ivy has 
climbed the wall, it has spread too over the massive 
wall of the garden which just there abuts upon the 
house, so that there is a secluded corner formed by 
the angle. Here some time ago a number of logs of ~ 
timber—oak, such as are sawn up into posts for field 
gateways—were left leaning half against the garden 
wall, half against the house, just under the window. 
There they have remained (there is never any hurry 
about things in the country) so long that the moss. 
has begun to encase the lower portions. What with 
the projecting thatch, the thick ivy, the timber thrown 
carelessly beneath, the lichen-grown garden wall, and 
a large bush of lilac in the angle, the place could 
hardly be more quiet, and is consequently a favourite 
resort of the birds, 
Within reach from the window the swallows have 
their nests, and the sparrows their holes, on the right 
hand; within reach on the left hand, among the 
ivy, the water-wagtail has built her nest year after 
year. The wagtail may always be seen about the 
place—now in the cowyards among the cattle, now 
in the rickyard, and even close to the door of the 
