v.] HARRY’S DREAM. 241

 

two, and then, with a little grunt of suspicious indig-
nation at being disturbed, plunge again into the thick
fern and disappear from your sight. Then again,
with a noise that made you start in spite of yourself,
the woodpigeon would suddenly burst out of the thick
foliage just above your head, where she had been
quietly dozing in the tree, enjoying the rays of the
sun shining in upon the thick leafy screen she had
chosen for her afternoon’s meditation. Dash, rush,
crash, out she would come just as you were close
under the tree, and for a moment you would wonder
what the noise could be all about. Then rabbits innu-
merable would cross your path; squirrels would
chatter above your head; the jays would let you
know their powers of imitation if you stopped to listen
to them without their discovering you, and then, when
roused, would give vent to the discordant note by
which they are generally known, and fly shrieking
away to hide themselves in the dense foliage. In
short, both animate and inanimate nature gave a
charm to these woods which everybody with ay
taste at all would appreciate and enjoy.

This was the scenery into which Harry entered,
as soon as he was in his father’s park. He carried
his hat in his hand, which ,he swung to and fro as he
walked along, meditating on the events of the day,
and intending to stroll quietly through the woods and
then home across the park, instead of taking the foot-
path which led direct to the house from the green
without passing through the wood. As he walked
and thought, it was not unnatural that the conduct of
the umpire should form part of the subject of his

R