242 Wald Life in a Southern County. 
Springing across the ditch, and entering among the 
tall slender wands, which, though they look so thick 
part aside easily, you may find on the mound behind 
the butt of an oak sawn just above the ground ; and 
there, in the shade of the reeds, and with a cool breeze 
now and again coming along the course of the stream, 
it is delicious in the heat of summer to repose and 
listen to the murmur of the water. 
The moorhens come down the current slowly, 
searching about among the flags; the reed warblers 
are busy in the hedge ; at the mouth of his hole sits 
a water-rat rubbing his face between his paws; 
across the stream comes his mate, swimming slowly 
with one end of a long green sedge in her mouth, and 
the rest towed behind on the surface. They are the 
beavers of our streams—amusing, intelligent little 
creatures, utterly different in habits from the rat of 
the drain. Move but a hand, and instantly they fall 
rather than dive into the water, making a sound like 
‘thock’ as they strike it; and then they run along 
the bottom, or seem to do so, as swiftly as on dry 
land. But in a few minutes out they come again, 
being at the same time extremely timid and as 
quickly reassured ; so that if you remain perfectly 
still they will approach within a yard. 
Where the two brooks meet a hollow willow tree 
hangs over the brown pool— brown with suspended sand 
and dead leaves slowly rotating under the surface 
where the swirl of the meeting currents, one swift 
