e, for the pool is deep, and
they appear to have sunk to sleep. Farther on, however, you hear their
voice again, where they ripple gaily over yon gravelly shallow. On the
left, the hill slopes gently down to the margin of the stream. On the
right is a green level, a smiling meadow, grass of the richest decks the
side of the slope; mighty trees also adorn it, giant elms, the nearest of
which, when the sun is nigh its meridian, fling a broad shadow upon the
face of the pool; through yon vista you catch a glimpse of the ancient
brick of an old English hall. It has a stately look, that old building,
indistinctly seen, as it is, among those umbrageous trees; you might
almost suppose it an earl's home; and such it was, or rather upon its
site stood an earl's home, in days of old, for there some old Kemp, some
Sigurd or Thorkild, roaming in quest of a hearthstead, settled down in
the grey old time, when Thor and Freya were yet gods, and Odin was a
portentous name. Yon old hall is still called the Earl's Home, though
the hearth of Sigurd is now no more, and the bones of the old Kemp, and
of Sigrith his dame, have been mouldering for a thousand years in some
neighbouring knoll; perhaps yonder, where those tall Norwegian pines
shoot up so boldly into the air. It is said that the old earl's galley
was once moored where is now that blue pool, for the waters of that
valley were not always sweet; yon valley was once an arm of the sea, a
salt lagoon, to which the war-barks of 'Sigurd, in search of a home,'
found their way.

I was in the habit of spending many an hour on the banks of that rivulet,
with my rod in my hand, and, when tired with angling, would stretch
myself on the grass, and gaze upon the waters as they glided past, and
not unfrequently, divesting myself of my dress, I would plunge into the
deep pool which I have already mentioned, for I had long since learned to
swim. And it came to pass that on one hot summer's day, after bathing in
the pool, I passed along the meadow till I came to a shallow part, and,
wading over to the opposite side, I adjusted my dress, and commenced
fishing in another pool, beside which was a small clump of hazels.

And there I sat upon the bank, at the bottom of the hill which slopes
down from 'the Earl's home'; my float was on the waters, and my back was
towards the old hall. I drew up many fish, small and great, which I took
from off the hook mechanically, and flung upon the bank, for I