the wild common-lands, where Nature revelled undisturbed,
and he knew that between blackberries and mushrooms he was pretty sure
of getting something to bring back in the basket Mrs Fidler supplied.

And so it proved. As soon as he was well through the fir-wood, where
the closely-growing reddish fir-trunks brought to mind Pete's
hiding-place, and consequently Pete himself, he found the broken ground
rich with brambles clustering over the furze-bushes, and hanging down in
the sandy hollows--hot, sunny spots, where the black fruit, rarely
gathered, hung in bunches, so that the basket soon began to grow heavy,
and a division had to be made with bracken fronds to keep them from
being mixed up with the mushrooms he gathered from time to time--not
big, flat, dark, brown-gilled fungi, such as grow in moist spots and
rich old pastures, but delicate, plump little buttons, which he found
here and there dotted about the soft velvety bits of sheep-cropped
pasture hidden among the clumps of furze.

Then there were other objects of interest: rabbits darted here and
there, skurrying into their sandy holes; he caught sight of a weasel,
which peered at him for a moment, and then glided away like a short
fur-clothed viper. Further on he came upon an olive-green,
regularly-marked snake, which seemed in no hurry to escape; another
slightly-formed reptile, nearly equal in thickness all along, and
looking as if made of oxidised silver, being far more active in its
movements to gain sanctuary under a furze bush. Soon after, while
reaching out his hand to get at a cluster of blackberries, he saw
beneath him in an open sunny patch, where all was yellow sand, a
curled-up grey serpent, not three feet from his extended hand. It was
thick and short, the tail being joined on to the body without the
graduation seen in the others, while the creature's neck looked thin and
small behind the flat, spade-shaped head.

"Asleep or awake?" Tom asked himself, as the reptile lay perfectly
motionless, with its curiously-marked eyes seeming dull, and as if
formed of the same material as the scales.

The lad drew his hand back, for there was something repellent about the
little object, and he knew at once that this was a dangerous little
viper.

His first instinct was to strike at it, but he had no stick; and he
stood perfectly still examining it, and comparing its shape and markings
with what he could recall of his readings respecting the adder.

Th