THE HERON 
That whetted his appetite for more he tried 
a slug next then a worm. After that, 
temporarily crop-filled, he huddled under a 
thorn bush and dozed. 
By morning he was ravenous again. He had 
lost his voice in Hogan's yard, but out in the 
woods he found it, and terrified a moorhen 
by clamouring unavailingly for food. Gradually 
he realized that, as he walked, slimy things 
started out of the mud when it trembled 
under his feet, and so he learned to feed 
himself. 
The woodmen came to cut up the beech-tree, 
and he watched them philosophically, but he 
had learnt that men were dangerous, and he 
would not let them near him. " That's the lad 
killed two hens on Andy Hogan," said one. 
" Shure I'd have wrung his neck for him." 
" Begob I was near doin' it, too," said Andy, 
emptying his pipe, " an' he near had the cat 
killed, too. But me ould father would always 
have there was no luck about the place when 
the herons left it. There was no nests in '98 
whin the house was burnt, and they niver 
came near the year Misther Michael (God 
bless him) left the counthry. So I thought 
I'd give this chap a chance, and faith, he's 
come back to the old spot again." 
219 
