THE HERON 
Andy brooded over this for three days while 
he sat in his door, polishing his old gun. 
V 
The Corr iasc and his mate fished on the sea 
flats. The moon was full, and the tides fell 
nightly until the shoals were bare, and left 
slimy things stranded in the mud, for the duck 
and the curlew and the widgeon to dabble for 
under the stars. But one night the weeds floated 
just awash, and the next evening the wild fowl 
went to the bogs to feed. The herons fished 
alone on a sandy spit. But when they moved, 
the flounders darted beyond their reach in an 
eddy of sand, so that the herons were hungry 
nor likely to be fed. 
To the seaward the rollers toppled and crashed 
in rhythmic diastole and beat the sand-banks 
smooth, but in the shelter of the spit the water 
was placid and still, shimmering with the reflec- 
tions of the sky. A row of widgeon, like a 
string of black beads, rose and dipped on the 
invisible swell and the gulls flew out to sea 
leisurely with the light upon their wings. The 
crimped surface of the mud glistened in the 
sunset ; beyond were the sandhills and then the 
open country with churches and houses upon it, 
dim as Atlantis in the mist. 
2 39 
