THE HERON 
The third parties who were concerned in the 
devastation were the herons. 
A little stream trickles down the hill to the 
head of Dwerning Glen. There it fills the 
great basin of the Quarry Pool, whose steep 
wet walls since men left off blasting stone 
out of them are shaggy with ferns and 
briars. Great trees lean over the pool, and at 
the upper end it is guarded by a wire fence, 
for the avenue to Ballongarry House runs by 
the Quarry here. The other side of the pool 
is low and shelving ; and here the overflow 
runs down the glen in a stream which in 
winter is full to the brim, but which in 
summer is hidden under a tangle of meadow- 
sweet and vetches. When the woods were 
younger there had been many herons' nests on 
the trees above the pool even twenty years 
before the " clappering " of fledglings had 
made the glen merry ; but now some of the 
trees were shattered, and as many more were 
empty, and where, in the days of old Geo- 
ghegans, one might have seen half a dozen 
herons, now would be only one. 
Andy Hogan lived in a one-roomed cabin at 
the foot of the glen, where in the spring, 
lying in bed, he could hear the herons 
gabbling and croaking after dark. He had 
worked for Thomas Geoghegan, the cousin of 
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