ense satisfaction,
passed on, breathing heavily. This is the last I saw of these two
eager sons of the Fatherland. For all I know, they may be still
following the excellent example afforded by "Charlie's Aunt."

CHAPTER XI

HOLLAND

I was now in a small wet stook, very cold and hungry. It being too
light to risk a return journey to my carefully prepared nest, I had to
take things as they were, and fell to wondering what it must feel like
to be in a nice warm bed. The day proved to be one long nightmare. By
careful observation I saw that a number of girls were working on the
same crop, luckily at the other end of the field. They appeared only
to be gleaning, but as it was quite likely this was preparatory to the
carting, I resolved to keep a very sharp look-out to avoid being
transfixed by a pitchfork and hoisted on to a cart. About
breakfast-time a peculiar noise came from somewhere quite close, so,
parting the corn carefully, I peered out in that direction. There, to
my horror, were three men scything the rushes along a ditch which
passed a few feet from me. The heap was a small one, and, therefore,
to avoid detection, I endeavoured to put the best part of it between
myself and them when they were working the closest to me. The
completion of this operation naturally left me a little exposed on
what I supposed to be my safe side. The men had almost passed, when I
happened to look away from the ditch and saw a farmer standing beside
the very next heap to mine, surveying the crop, his hands in his
pockets. Somehow or other I wriggled back unobserved, and lay
shivering with a combination of cold and fear. After half-an-hour's
wait, I again looked out cautiously, and was relieved to find the man
gone, though there seemed to be even more people in the neighbourhood
than before. To add to my discomfort the breeze increased to quite a
strong, piercing wind, which whistled in and out among the
corn-sheaves until I felt very like an ice-cream in a refrigerator.
Even then there were more trials to come, for, not only did the grain
pour itself into my clothes, eyes and ears, but also mixed with the
crop was a large proportion of barley or bearded wheat, which took a
truly fiendish delight in slowly but relentlessly making its way up my
sleeves or down my back. In this predicament it seemed almost
unthinkable that I should ever have been so foolish in my schoo