book, would pass hours in a state
of unmixed enjoyment, my eyes now fixed on the wondrous pages, now
glancing at the sylvan scene around; and sometimes I would drop the book
and listen to the voice of the rooks and wild pigeons, and not
unfrequently to the croaking of multitudes of frogs from the neighbouring
swamps and fens.

In going to and from this place I frequently passed a tall elderly
individual, dressed in rather a quaint fashion, with a skin cap on his
head and stout gaiters on his legs; on his shoulders hung a moderate
sized leathern sack; he seemed fond of loitering near sunny banks, and of
groping amidst furze and low scrubby bramble bushes, of which there were
plenty in the neighbourhood of Norman Cross. Once I saw him standing in
the middle of a dusty road, looking intently at a large mark which seemed
to have been drawn across it, as if by a walking-stick. "He must have
been a large one," the old man muttered half to himself, "or he would not
have left such a trail; I wonder if he is near; he seems to have moved
this way." He then went behind some bushes which grew on the right side
of the road, and appeared to be in quest of something, moving behind the
bushes with his head downwards, and occasionally striking their roots
with his foot: at length he exclaimed, "Here he is!" and forthwith I saw
him dart amongst the bushes. There was a kind of scuffling noise, the
rustling of branches, and the crackling of dry sticks. "I have him!"
said the man at last; "I have got him!" and presently he made his
appearance about twenty yards down the road, holding a large viper in his
hand. "What do you think of that, my boy?" said he, as I went up to
him--"what do you think of catching such a thing as that with the naked
hand?" "What do I think?" said I. "Why, that I could do as much
myself." "You do," said the man, "do you? Lord! how the young people in
these days are given to conceit; it did not use to be so in my time: when
I was a child, childer knew how to behave themselves; but the childer of
these days are full of conceit, full of froth, like the mouth of this
viper;" and with his forefinger and thumb he squeezed a considerable
quantity of foam from the jaws of the viper down upon the road. "The
childer of these days are a generation of--God forgive me, what was I
about to say?" said the old man; and opening his bag he thrust the
reptile into it, which appeared far from empty. I passed on. As I was
r