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Even though the Moor-Hens, who are so conspicuously intolerant upon the pool, do feed together amicably upon the meadows adjoining; and the Chaffinch that is so pugnacious in the morning, does seek out the flock later in the day; yet their conditions of existence prevent our obtaining a panoramic view of the whole proceeding, and we have to study each scene separately before discovering that the relationship between intolerance and the territory on the one hand, and friendship and the neutral ground on the other, is just as strong a feature as it is in the behaviour of the Lapwing.
A whole company of amiable dogs, spaniels and terriers, came out with an effusive welcome; a big black yard-dog, after a loud protesting bark, joined in the civilities. And there I sat down in the warm sun, to drink in the beauty of the scene, while the moor-hens cried plaintively in the moat, and the dogs disposed themselves at my feet.
Coming back, where the water lay in shadow beneath a larchwood which as yet had not wholly lost its vivid vernal green, he disturbed the paddling moor-hens and put up a mallard from a clump of swaying reeds. Then he dressed and turned homeward, glowing, beside a sluggish stream which wound through a waste of heather where the curlew were whistling eerily.
This vegetation was so thick that the moor-hens, on reaching it, plunged beneath it and disappeared. The river wound through a valley, which appeared like a huge garden. Apple-trees were there, which reminded one of Eve, and willows, which made one think of Galatea. It was, as I have said, in one of those equinoctial months when may be felt the peculiar charm of a season drawing to a close.
Now and then red and orange billed moor-hens would lead their dusky little broods from amongst the reeds, and after a short swim, lead them in again when they saw that they were watched. Plenty to see? Ay! so much, that the water, the sky, and the green banks took away every thought of the water-bottle and the village, and even of breakfast, till all of a sudden Harry burst out
You are a bishop; that is to say, a prince of the church, one of those gilded men with heraldic bearings and revenues, who have vast prebends, the bishopric of D fifteen thousand francs settled income, ten thousand in perquisites; total, twenty-five thousand francs, who have kitchens, who have liveries, who make good cheer, who eat moor-hens on Friday, who strut about, a lackey before, a lackey behind, in a gala coach, and who have palaces, and who roll in their carriages in the name of Jesus Christ who went barefoot!
The long grass waves and welcomes me; the moor-hens float with me; the kingfisher is always with me somewhere, and sits on the bough to see his ruddy breast in the water. And you come too, Bevis, now and then to listen to me; and it is all because I am so happy." "Why are you so happy?" said Bevis. "I do not know," said the brook.
Another was despatched to the Close, to gruffly inquire where the cottage boys were, and what they had been doing, for Bevis was known to hanker after their company, to go catching loach under the stones in the stream that crossed the road, and creeping under the arch of the bridge, and taking the moor-hens' eggs from the banks of the ponds where the rushes were thick.
It was true, for, on entering the kitchen, Bobby went straight to the bench in the corner and lay down flat under it. Elsie sat beside him, just as she had done of old. Her eyes overflowed so in sympathy that the mother was quite distracted. This would not do at all. "Lassie, are ye no' rememberin' Bobby was fair fond o' moor-hens' eggs fried wi' bits o' cheese?
There is no sound but the rustle of the leaves and the splash of the moor-hens who come to swim about. They don't seem to be afraid of me, neither do the thrushes and robins. They know I shall only sit still and watch them. Sometimes they come quite near." She used, in fact, to take her letter-writing and sewing to the sweet, secluded place and spend hours of pure, restful bliss.
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