140 
NATURE STUDY. 
ny of whom lived just around the bend of the road—as 
Mrs. S. of No. 8 remarked to her neighbors—“They dig 
a hole in the bank three feet deep, with only their tiny 
beaks for tools, and there, in those dark, lonely dungeons, 
they sit to hatch their eggs. Only fancy ! Such air and 
sun loving birds, too!” But both kinds came to the shoal 
for insects that are always more plentiful over water, and 
they darted and dipped in graceful curves, and the eave 
swallows caught the gleam of the sunlight on their irides¬ 
cent feathers. 
At the end of the shoal the brook plunged down among 
the rocks again and ran under the big bridge over the 
road. Under there, where it was always cool and mossy, 
a phcebe built her nest on a jutting rock. Phoebe, too, 
came hunting over the shoal. Day after day, a kingfisher 
perched on a dead limb, and watched for fish, ever and 
anon dashing down into the water with unerring aim and 
bringing one back to his perch to be dexterously slipped 
down through that enormous beak. 
The water wagtails tetered solemnly up and down in the 
edge of the water, picking up insects, but they never even 
looked at the little sticks of rotten wood that lay strewn 
about. They could not be good to eat. Whereat the child 
laughed. She knew these same sticks could walk well 
enough when they thought no one was seeing. She had 
picked them up, though they sometimes clung close to the 
ground, and there was a soft white worm in the queer lit¬ 
tle house. She thought it like a fairy story then, and not 
much less strange when, many years after, she learned 
they were caddice-worms, and that later in their existence 
they dropped the heavy burden and flew about on gauzy 
brown wings. 
And like another wondrous fairy story were the skaters, 
whose feet made just the tiniest dents in the surface of the 
