THE WOODCOCK 
the badger earth was, before the trees were. 
One year is very like another in Garrybrack : 
more beech mast than leaves one autumn 
perhaps more leaves than mast the next, 
that is all the difference as a rule. 
But though the traveller noted all the comings 
and goings in the wood from earliest dawn, he 
himself was not seen. The blackbird, raking 
for earthworms close by, never saw him ; nor 
did Seabac the Hawk who drove the blackbird 
clucking to covert. Droleen the Wren danced 
a war-jig on a twig just over his " lie," and 
never saw him, for Creaman the Woodcock is 
never seen until he wishes this is part of the 
wood-magic. Brown and buff, cunningly 
pencilled, met the dun and russet of the wet 
leaves, and the woodcock forthwith disappeared. 
The throb of his heart never heaved his feathers: 
he lay as still as if before Medusa's head. He 
was an impressionist picture copied by Nature 
F 81 
