The Swan And Her Crew Part 18

They eat mice, and if a young bird (not their own) came in the way they would make a meal of it."

They bought a score of the eggs for the purpose of exchange, and then rowed round the pool watching the wonderful scene. There were plenty of other birds beside gulls there. Coots, water-hens, water-rails, grebes and dabchicks were in plenty.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARP.]

"I should think that there cannot be many fish here where the gulls would eat up all the sp.a.w.n," said Frank; but as he spoke d.i.c.k pointed out the backs of a couple of immense carp which were basking on the top of the water, and a little further on they saw the body of a huge eel, and they were told by the keeper that there were any number of eels there.

They were invited by the keeper to take tea at his cottage, and they had some of the gulls' eggs boiled, and very good they were. After tea they went for a birds'-nesting ramble through the wood.

"Oh, look here!" said Jimmy; "when we came this afternoon all this place was covered with the scarlet pimpernel, and now there is not one to be seen. They have all closed up."

"Yes," answered the keeper, "they always do that about four o'clock, and all day long when the day is dull. We call them wink-a-peep, and sometimes shepherd's weather-gla.s.s."

"How different to these dingy meadow brown b.u.t.terflies which are fluttering all about us. I have seen them fly on the most damp and cheerless of days, when not another b.u.t.terfly could be seen. I like them, although they are so dingy and ugly, because they are so hardy and homely."

"What b.u.t.terfly is that?" said Jimmy, pointing to one that flitted past.

d.i.c.k's net was ready in a moment, and off he went in chase. Bringing back his prize, they examined it and p.r.o.nounced it to be the speckled wood b.u.t.terfly or wood argus. It is a common insect nearly everywhere.

It has wings of a deep-brown spotted with buff, and on the wings are pure white eyes with glossy black circles around them. It may be seen in every woodland glade, and is not at all shy.

"Hush!" said Frank; "is that a shrew-mouse or a gra.s.shopper which is making that chirruping noise?"

"It is neither, sir," replied the keeper; "it is a bird, and there it is creeping about the bottom of that hedge like a mouse."

"Oh, I know what it is, it is a gra.s.shopper warbler. Let us look for its nest."

They searched for quite a quarter of an hour before they found it. It was placed on the ground in the middle of a tuft of gra.s.s and at the foot of a bush. It was cup-shaped, made of gra.s.s and moss, and contained six eggs which were pinkish-white in colour, spotted all over with reddish-brown.

The note of this little bird seems to be of a ventriloquial character like that of the landrail or corncrake. I have searched many a time in the exact spot where the sound appeared to come from, and then perhaps discovered that the bird was on the other side of the lane.

Jimmy next found a nest on the ground. It was arched over like a wren's, and was very beautifully constructed out of moss, hair, and feathers. It contained five round white eggs spotted with red. In order to identify it more positively as that of the chiff-chaff, which they suspected it was, they watched for some time, and saw the bird, a little pale-brown thing, creep up to it and enter it.

I would particularly impress on my boy readers the necessity of thoroughly identifying the nest and eggs which they find. It is often impossible to tell accurately without seeing the old bird, and as the value of a collection depends upon the accuracy of its named specimens, no trouble should be spared in ensuring thorough identification. This remark applies to collections of every kind. "What is worth doing at all is worth doing well."

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHIFF-CHAFF.]

The keeper said, pointing to some red, hairy ma.s.ses on a bramble bush, "We call these robins' pincushions; can you tell me what causes them?"

"Oh yes," said d.i.c.k, "they are galls caused by a little grub which afterwards turns into a fly."

"They are very pretty things to be caused by a dirty little grub," said Jimmy; "and pray what causes this cuckoo-spit?" pointing to one of the little lumps of water foam which are so common on plants and gra.s.ses in the summer.

d.i.c.k said they were caused by the larvae of a fly like the galls, but as they were puzzled to know how it produced this casing of spit, when they got back to Norwich they went into the library and found, in a number of _Science Gossip_, the following information about it:--

"The larvae, as soon as it is hatched commences operations on some juicy stem or leaf, no matter what, so it be sappy enough; thrusts in its long proboscis; pumps up the sap; blows it off in small bubbles through a pipe in its tail, and so speedily constructs for itself a cool, moist, translucent home. By and by the sap dries up, and the insect changes its form and becomes winged."

[Ill.u.s.tration: OAK-GALL-FLY.]

It was now getting dusk, and the gulls were flying low over the meadows, hawking about like swallows. The boys went to see what they were catching, and saw that they were feeding on the ghost-moths which were hovering over the gra.s.s-tops with that vibrating and ghost-like flight which is so peculiar to them. Every country boy must know the ghost-moths which, large and small, white and yellow, hover over the hay-fields in the month of June. Their size alone makes them conspicuous, and they have a weird look as they flit about in the warm, still twilight.

d.i.c.k got several for his collection, and then it was time to be returning; and after making due acknowledgment to the friendly keeper they drove back through the quiet night, while nightingales sang around them, and the great red moon rose over the eastern woods, and quenched the pale light of the stars. The horses went well together, and they had no trouble with them; and when they got back to the hotel they went to bed, declaring they had spent a very jolly day.

CHAPTER XIX.

Back again.--Taken in Tow.--Bobbing for Eels.--Glow-worms.-- Home.--Urticating Caterpillars.

It will be seen that our boys had great capacities for enjoying themselves, and so oblivious had they been of the flight of time, that they had only left themselves two days in which to get home, for they felt bound not to ask for any extension of their holiday. Two days was a very short time to sail all the way down the Yare and up the Bure again; and to add to their dilemma, the wind had settled in the east, and blew light and fitfully all day until five or six, when it would drop. They could have gone back by road and left the yacht to be sent after them, but this would have been _infra dig._, and was not to be thought of while the chance remained of reaching home in a legitimate way. So they started, and with infinite labour and much tacking and clever sailing, they succeeded in reaching Brundall, about six miles down the river, by the middle of the day.

"This won't do," said Frank. "Here comes a steam-wherry. I wonder if they will take us in tow."

The wherry was hailed, and for a small consideration her crew consented to tow them to Yarmouth. Their sails were accordingly lowered, and a rope was made fast to the wherry; and in a few minutes' time they were being pulled along at a good pace by their great, black, ugly friend.

"Now we can enjoy our _otium c.u.m dignitate_," said d.i.c.k, throwing himself at full length on the roof of the cabin with the furled mainsail as a pillow; "and however light the breeze is to-morrow, it will take us home in time; so I shall write a note home and post it at Yarmouth."

Between the waving reed-beds, through the long miles of marsh, acres of which were white with the silky globes of the cotton-gra.s.ses, by whirling wind-mills and groups of red and white cattle browsing on the reclaimed marshes, past sailing wherries that surged along before the light breeze with a lazy motion, past white-sailed yachts with gay-coloured pennants at their mast-heads and laughter-loving pleasure parties on board, underneath a bright blue sky streaked with filmy cloudlets and dotted with uprising larks, over a stream that murmured and rippled with a summer gladness, they clove their steady way. With every nerve instinct with healthy life, and hearts which had the great gift of understanding and appreciating the true and the beautiful around them, what wonder if they felt as happy as they could wish to feel, and were full of contentment with the pleasant time it was their lot to pa.s.s.

They crossed Breydon Water under widely different circ.u.mstances to those in which they first crossed it. Then it was wild and stormy; now it was fair and placid.

They reached Yarmouth about five, and as the wind still held they turned up the Bure with the flowing tide, and sailed on and on in that quiet peaceful evening, with lessening speed as the wind fell, until at last they barely crept through the water. Even when there was not a breath of air perceptible to the upheld hand, and the surface of the river was as smooth as gla.s.s, and the reeds were silent from their whispering, yet a magic wind seemed to fill their large sails, and still they crept on with a dream-like motion. At last that motion ceased, but then they were so close to Acle bridge that they set to work and poled the yacht along with the quants, and in another half hour they were moored by the Staithe.

It was then half-past nine o'clock, but still very light; and there was a whiteness in the sky to the north-east, which told them the sun was not very far over the horizon, and that at midnight it would be but little darker than it was then.

After they had had supper Frank said,

"Do you remember those men whom we saw near Norwich, who sat in small boats all the night long, and with a line in each hand, bobbed for eels?"

"Yes; what of them?"

"Why should we not bob for eels to-night? I don't feel inclined to go to bed."

"Very well," said Jimmy; "but can we get the worsted?"

"I will go and ask for some at the Hermitage."

"What do you want worsted for?" said d.i.c.k.

"To catch the eels with; but wait a bit and you shall see. Bring the lantern and come with me."

Frank marched up to the house and knocked, and when the door was opened by a woman, said,

"Please can you let us have a hank of worsted? I will give you double its value." The woman looked at him in surprise, and he repeated his question. Then she went indoors, and reappeared with a hank of worsted in her hand. This she threw out to them with a frightened look, and slammed the door in their faces.

"Wait, my good woman, we have not paid you," said Frank. But there was no answer.

"We seem to have frightened her," said d.i.c.k.