Making Pens of Reeds 293 



by the brook can show a small bed still, and here and 

 there a group grows at the mouth of these deep ditches, 

 on the little delta formed of the sand, mud, and decaying 

 twigs brought down. I have cut them fifteen feet in 

 length. Some people, attracted by the beauty of the 

 feathery heads of these reeds, come a considerable distance 

 to get them. I have made pens of them : it is possible to 

 write with such pens, and they are softer than quills, but 

 on account of that softness quickly wear out. 



A woodcock may occasionally be flushed from such a 

 ditch in winter. Woodcocks are fond of those ditches 

 down which there always trickles a tiny thread of water — 

 hardly so much as would be understood by the term 

 streamlet — coming from a little spring which even in 

 severe frosts is never frozen. Even when the running 

 brook is frozen such little springs are free of ice, and so, 

 too, is the streamlet for some distance. 



From the bed of the brook proper the reeds are gone — 

 they have taken refuge in nooks and corners. This is 

 probably accounted for by the periodical cleaning out of 

 the brook — not annually, but every now and then, in order 

 to prevent the flooding which would be caused by the 

 accumulation of mud and sand. The roots of the flags 

 seem to withstand this rude treatment ; but many other 

 water plants cannot, and are consequently only found in 

 places which have not been disturbed for many years. 



There is as much difference in ponds as in hedges, so 

 far as inhabitants are concerned. Many fields and hedges 

 seem comparatively deserted, while others are full of birds ; 

 and so of several ponds which do not apparently vary 

 much — one is a favourite haunt of fish, and another has 

 not got a single fish in it. One pond particularly used to 

 attract my attention, because it seemed devoid of any kind 



