oak the thick blackthorn hedge was
succeeded by a continuous strip of withy-bed bordering the brook. It
often occurred to us that by entering these withies it would be possible
to reconnoitre one side of Southlands; for the stream skirted the lower
grounds: the tall willows would conceal any one passing through them. So
one spring morning the attempt was made.

It was necessary to go on hands and knees through the mowing grass for
some yards while passing an open space where the blackthorn cover ended,
and then to leap a broad ditch that divided the withy-beds from the
meadow. The lissom willow wands parted easily and sprang back to their
places behind, leaving scarce a trace. Their slender tops rose overhead;
beneath, long dead grasses, not yet quite supplanted by the spring
growth, filled the space between. These rustled a little under foot, but
so faint a sound could scarcely have been audible outside; and had any
one noticed it it would have been attributed to a hare or a fox moving:
both are fond of lying in withy-beds when the ground is dry.

The way to walk noiselessly is to feel with the foot before letting your
weight press on it; then the dead stick or fallen hemlock is discovered
and avoided. A dead stick cracks; the dry hollow hemlock gives a
splintering sound when crushed. These old hemlock stems were numerous in
places, together with 'gicksies,' as the haymakers call a plant that
resembles it, but has a ribbed or fluted instead of a smooth stalk. The
lads use a long 'gicks' cut between the joints as a tube to blow haws or
peggles at the girls. When thirsty, and no ale is handy, the men search
for one to suck up water with from the brook. It is difficult to find
one free from insects, which seem to be remarkably fond of anything
hollow. The haymakers do not use the hemlock, thinking it would poison
the water; they think, too, that drinking through a tube is safer when
they are in a great heat from the sun than any other way.

Nor is it so easy to drink from a stream without this simple aid. If the
bank be flat it is wet, and what looks like the grass of the meadow
really grows out of the water; so that there it is not possible to be at
full length. If the bank be dry the level of the water is several inches
lower, and in endeavouring to drink the forehead is immersed; often the
water is so much lower than its banks that it is quite impossible to
drink from it lying. By the edge grasses, water-plantains,