THE WINGED SNAKE. 
Shee old shed looked very picturesque in 
the red light of the setting sun—the 
disused old shed beside the deserted old house 
in the deserted old garden. There were holes 
in the shed where spiders caught the gnats as 
they flew in and out like bits of golden fluff; 
and under the floors were holes, too, of mice 
and rats. 
The light faded, glimmered, and was just 
flickering out, when a bird, barely discernible, 
flying much like a turtle-dove and looking 
like one, flew in from the sea across the line 
of light. It was a cuckoo. There had been 
no cuckoo seen or heard there yet that 
spring.. 
Then, when the light had faded and the 
moon came out, a shadowy, smallish form 
slipped in from the sea towards the old shed, 
vanishing, a pale wraith of the air, as soon as 
seen. 
But instantly there was a shrill, loud, wonder- 
fully arresting, far-sounding cry. ‘ 'Tui-tui- 
tui-tui!’ it rang, and was still, leaving the old 
shed and the old garden to silence, broken 
only by the ghostly patter of a rat or two, or 
the pin-point squeak of a bat. 
