A COUNTRY WALK 
167 
on with my lunch, well satisfied with the seat I had chosen, 
the mosses at my feet were of so lovely a shade of green, 
and the birds seemed so tame as long as I remained perfectly 
quiet. A cock pheasant walked majestically out of the brush- 
wood, followed by his little hen, but on perceiving me he uttered 
his well-known note, quickened his pace, and was soon out of 
sight. 
As I finished my lunch and rose from my mossy seat I saw 
a brown dormouse, seated on a bough, eating an acorn held 
between its little pink paws. I stood for a moment to let it 
finish its meal. I think the acorn was a good one, for I read 
full satisfaction in its large, beady-black eyes ! It soon finished 
its repast and sprang to the ground, as I, too, moved on. I 
thought I had never seen such a quantity of nuts and acorns 
before. As I approached the edge of the wood I stood for a 
moment to watch a party of rabbits at play. Very pretty did 
they look, darting in and out of the brushwood. 
As I continued my walk I found that this little wood led into 
a beautiful forest of much larger trees, chiefly firs. Numbers of 
ants ran to and fro : the little red and black emmets and the 
large horse-ants (half an inch in length) all seemed equally busy. 
I watched two of these insects carrying a twig (like two men 
with a plank of wood). When they came to a rut in their road 
which the wheel of a cart had made, one ant went first with his 
end of the twig, dragged it up after him unaided and the second 
ant let go, leaving his companion to drag the twig across the 
rest of the path, till he came to a large heap, where he left his 
burden : this heap was composed of twigs, fir needles, and 
similar things, and over it a colony of horse ants swarmed. 
As I walked through this forest of firs I felt as if there was 
a roof over my head, for the stems rise to the same height and 
then the dark foliage spreading, formed a roof : there is hardly 
any underwood, nothing higher than the fern : a vast silence 
extends on every side, nor was it broken by the flitting of birds 
or the rush of animals. The coo of the wood-pigeon was the 
only sound. 
By degrees, as I walked along, the firs ceased and the blue 
sky appeared, more brilliant than ever, after the dark roof of the 
firs. The ground was covered with pink heath, with here and 
there a dash of another coloured furze. Doves cooed and flitted 
to and fro ; and the hum of bees was heard. Once more I stood 
for a moment to feast my eyes on the scene. 
I was on rather a high piece of ground. Before me were the 
hop-gardens and cornfields, and down in the valley beyond lay 
our little village, the Church in a group of trees, surrounded by 
cottages, with a few houses dotted here and there among the 
trees : the bells were ringing for Evensong. I resolved to go 
home by the village. 
As I approached the hop-gardens the busy hop-pickers were 
all at work divesting the poles of their clinging burdens. The 
