Robin Hood's Barn 



If you do not believe me, drop unwarily into 

 the water-lane that winds slowly backward past 

 our house and act as though you thought it pub- 

 lic property. Its chuckhng pools are in reality 

 the very place for bait and your net wiU come 

 scooping up with treasure. But before you have 

 waded to mid-channel, my mother will have heard 

 your splash and stir and be making down the 

 path in a mad scurry. Then will you learn that 

 your presence is affront and that you have 

 intruded on her convent close. In fact, quite as 

 though you thought yourself upon the highroad, 

 you are trampling through each still recess. 



Her rebuke is breathless. "Don't you touch 

 my turtle." 



Startled, you protest you have not seen him. 

 Nor has she. Some three weeks at least he has 

 spent in retreat, executing doubtless some strange 

 vow of solitude. Even on feast days he is unap- 

 proachable and reticent, capricious in his grat- 

 itude. At the same time, if you were not there, 

 she might perhaps detect his ugly head thrust 

 forward from the folds of his black cowl and a 

 [264] 



