46 FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE MERRY SANDPIPER AND THE CRUEL 

 SPARROW-HAWK. 



When the swallow and the swift are in our midst 

 once more, a longing steals over us town-dwellers, 

 a longing that refuses to be satisfied until we can 

 visit the brooks and the creatures that live on 

 their banks and in their waters, amongst which 

 our life was once more freely spent than it has 

 been of late years. 



Just now there is no one to ask leave from, no 

 one to control us, so we go, as we did in the days 

 gone by ; only now we have to go to the sources 

 of the streams, or very near them. So far as my 

 own experience goes, the waters in the near neigh- 

 bourhood of country towns and villages are more 



