The Pond-Meadow. 97 



to drive most of these daik interesting birds, that made the 

 night more gloomy, away from the vicinity of the trestle. 

 They inhabited the meadows from April to November, and 

 at mid-summer, in the thickly-wooded low-lands, their 

 voices sounded like the barking of a puppy — a particularly 

 short puck-puck. 



The gunner's dog seemed to delight in rushing pell-mell 

 into the meadow ditches where . the bitterns fished and 

 frightening not only them, but the timid creatures that had 

 their dwelling there, with his ponderosity and prodigious 

 splashing. It was, as if a Minhocao — that gigantic worm- 

 like animal, reported to turn brooks from their beds in 

 Brazil — came plowing through one of our quiet rural 

 villages. 



Dogs care naught for wet feet, though they will shiver 

 in cold weather, after coming out of the water, but if the 

 glee of the moment is any criterion, they seem as happy as 

 when lying in front of the fire. Perhaps the violent series 

 of shakes, that sends the water flying in innumerable 

 tangents from their bodies, has an exhilarating influence 

 that we humans, who are incapable of such gymnastics? 

 know not of. But there is no accounting for nature, and 

 the best we can do is to observe the facts, and say that 

 matters are thus and so ; that frogs delight in their hourly 

 bath, Bruno splashes in the ditches or sits by the fire, and 

 that Tabby is displeased if she even so much as wets her 

 feet. If she goes out in the dewy grass, she lifts her 

 feet comically high, so as to be as far removed from the 

 moisture as possible, and often she will shake her legs 

 violently. When there is snow on the ground, she finds 



