Toads. 189 
eight-day clock, standing on the floor; they come 
after the frogs that enter at the doors—always wide 
open in summer—and are. supposed also to eat 
crumbs. 
In the cellar there is sure to be a toad under the 
barrels on the cool stone-flags ; in the garden there 
is another, purposely kept in the cucumber-frame to 
protect the plant from being eaten by creeping things. 
It is curious to notice that they both seem to flourish 
equally well—one in the coolest, the other in the 
hottest place. A third may generally be found in 
the strawberry-bed. Strawberries are much eaten by 
insects of many kinds; so that the toad really does 
good service in a garden. 
In winter, when snow is on the ground, a few larks 
sometimes venture into the garden where anything 
green yet shows above the white covering on the 
patches. If the weather is severe, the moorhen will 
come up from the brook, though two fields distant, 
in the night, and the marks of her feet may be traced 
round the house. Then, as the evening approaches, 
the wild ducks pass over, and every now and then 
during the night the weird cries of waterfowl resound 
in the frosty air. The heron sails slowly over, every 
night and every morning, backwards and forwards 
from the mere to the water-meadows and the brook, 
uttering his unearthly call at intervals. 
