VI 



UNREST AND REST 



1 DID not leave the farm until Spring was in the 

 air. The swallows had not yet come, it is true, 

 nor was the voice of the cuckoo to be heard, calling 

 for its mate, and warning the little birds to look 

 after their eggs ; but the missel-thrush was sitting 

 high up in the elm-tree, and shouting out his very 

 heart for joy in spasmodic and fragmentary song. 

 And the sparrows in the yard were picking up 

 pieces of straw and playing with them, and fighting 

 mimic battles for the possession of stray feathers, 

 while the gay starlings chuckled on the roof, and 

 popped in and out of holes in the thatch. 



I find it rather difficult to explain subsequent 

 events. Such an experience as I was now to 

 undergo has never been repeated in my life, nor 

 could the oldest rat in our company tell me any- 

 thing about it, and he was so very old that he must 

 have been able to explain if anyone could. The 

 fact remains that we made a great journey, and 



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