WHEN LIFE STIRS. 15 



through. Very curious notions exist about this 

 bird in some localities. 



" Now look here, I don't care what you says, 

 if you jabbered on fur a week. Cuckoos turn into 

 hawks. An' I ken tell ye summat else as will make 

 yer open yer eyes a bit, — swallers in the winter goes 

 under the mud like eels. I'd sooner believe my 

 father's old book, what tells ye about the swaller 

 stone an' the swaller herb, than I would what you 

 says on it. Why, that 'ere book was writ afore 

 my grandfather's time. It come down to us in 

 the fambley. An' I've heerd my old granny say 

 as all critters an' herbs — an' us as well — was all 

 under the power o' the planets." 



Jack was only proving in his own rough way 

 what our forefathers in their own limited and 

 peculiar fashion had noticed of the resting -time 

 of nature, and the time when life stirs. 



