A SURRE,Y RIVER. 



remonstrance. Jane will tell Willum that "he be 

 gettin' most owdacious bold, thet he be ; and thet ef 

 she'd know'd he'd bin comin' thet way, she wud a 

 bided indoors." But Willum, by some wonderful 

 powers of speech, gets Jane to look at the matter in 

 quite a different light, and she becomes more quiet 

 than would have seemed natural to so active a dam- 

 sel. . Listening to some bird, or watching some wild 

 animal, one is often compelled to be an involuntary 

 eavesdropper. " Now, then, over ye comes," says 

 Willum ; " gently now, doan't be flustered, — that's the 

 way. Now jump, an' I'll ketch ye." And then fol- 

 lows a sound like the breaking of a great stick, — oh, 

 such a smack ! — Willum claiming and taking his 

 rustic dues. Ay, they are rightly named kissing 

 stiles. 



Getting over this stile, not like Willum, alas ! but 

 alone, I find myself in the meadows, where my two 

 fishermen are likely to be. The meadows form a 

 gentle slope down to the river ; here again is some 

 new freak of the Mole. The soil is a kind of sandy 

 loam ; little by little the floods have undermined the 

 banks, causing great landslips. Large portions of the 

 meadow have gone into the river, taking the trees 



