Aid and Comfort to the Enemy 



At first I have to do some courting. Under 

 the shade of a big oak the enemy are standing, 

 their heads drowsed forward; and though as I 

 appear they come quickly to attention, they rec- 

 ognize no flag of truce. Nor is their conquest 

 to be made by a meUifluous call. Their bare, 

 bright world of hillside and of lowland pastures 

 has contained few human beings save their owner, 

 whose voice on his chance visits is one of gruff 

 command. But as I lift a handful of the pods 

 and scatter them below me, they catch the flash 

 of green and recognize the signal with an arrested 

 gaze. Their ears prick forward with a strange 

 slow wonderment. There is a pause, low mutter- 

 ings of confidence, and at last the first ambas- 

 sador steps forth. 



Timidly she comes, with nostrils wide for the 

 first scent of danger, though flinging back from 

 time to time a look of high disdain for the craven 

 hearts who will not even follow at her heels. 

 She stops midway and to conceal an ebb in cour- 

 age, falls to cropping or lets the spikes of a scrub 

 apple tree rake along her legs. But despite her 

 halts the glamour of adventure is upon her, and 



[223] 



