190 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
CHAPTER X. 
‘THE WOOD-PILE—LIZARDS—SHEDS AND RICKYARD—THE 
WITCHES’ BRIAR—-INSECTS—PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND 
FRUIT. 
‘THE farmhouse at Wick has the gardens and orchard 
already mentioned upon one side, and on the other 
are the carthouses, sheds, and rickyard. Between 
these latter and the dwelling runs a broad roadway 
for the waggons to enter and leave the fields, and on 
its border stands a great wood-pile. The faggots cut 
in the winter from the hedges are here stacked up as 
high as the roof of a cottage, and near by lies a heap 
of ponderous logs waiting to be split for firewood. 
From exposure to the weather the bark of the faggot- 
sticks has turned black and is rapidly decaying, and 
under it innumerable insects have made their homes. 
For these, probably, the wrens visit the wood-pile 
continually ; if in passing anyone strikes the faggots 
with a stick, a wren will generally fly out on the op- 
posite side. They creep like mice in between the 
faggots—there are numerous interstices—and thus 
sometimes pass right through a corner of the stack. 
