OF CREABAN, THE 
PHEASANT 
I 
A LONG narrow strip of woodland came down to 
the back of the Tonsella farmyard. It was a 
windy cheerful place, not more than a hundred 
and fifty yards from side to side ; and in the even- 
ing the long slant rays of the sunset pierced 
right through the tree trunks from the stubble 
fields on the one hand to the Home-field on 
the other. The trees in the wood were chiefly 
beech and Scotch fir, and underneath them 
grew thick clumps of bramble, and the long 
millet-grass. Pigeons and tits visited the trees, 
and hedgehogs and fieldmice lived in the grass ; 
but there was not enough covert to attract 
other of the wild breeds who lived in the big 
wood of Ballydare over the hills, and as a rule 
the Tonsella wood was a lonely place. 
Nevertheless, one September day, it seemed a 
good hiding-place to one explorer, who entered 
it from its northern end which abutted on the 
outlying copses of Ballydare. Crcaban the 
170 
