As he stood watching them, his eyes rested upon a flashing of water here
and there, showing where a stream ran winding through the shallow
valley; while a couple of miles beyond it he could trace the railway now
by a heavy goods train panting slowly along, with the engine funnel
leaving a long train of white flocculent steam behind.

"Oh, it's lovely," he said softly. "Who could help being happy down
here!"

There was rather a swelling in his throat, for he felt the change for a
few moments. But the next minute the exploring desire was strong upon
him, and he plunged in amongst the bronze, pillar-like stems of the
fir-trees, and began wandering on and on in a kind of twilight, flecked
and cut by vivid rays of sunshine, which came through the dense,
dark-green canopy overhead. The place was full of attractions to such a
newly-released prisoner, and his eyes were everywhere, now finding
something to interest him in the thick soft carpet of pine-needles over
which his feet glided. Then he caught sight of a squirrel which ran up
a fir-tree, and stopped high up to watch the intruder. Then he came to
an open place where trees had been felled; the stumps and chips dotted
the ground, and bluebells had sprung up abundantly, along with patches
of briar and heath revelling in the sunshine.

Here the sandy ground was showing soft and yellow in places, where it
had been lately turned over, and in a minute or two he knew what by, for
a rabbit sprang up from close to his feet, ran some fifty yards, and
disappeared in a burrow; while from the trees beyond came a series of
harsh cries, and he caught sight of half-a-dozen jays jerking themselves
along, following one another in their soft flight, and showing the pure
white patch just above their tails.

"There must be snakes and hedgehogs, and all kinds of wild things here,"
thought Tom, with all a boy's eagerness for country sights and sounds;
"and look at that!"

He obeyed his own command, stopping short to watch, as he heard first a
peculiar squealing sound, and directly after saw another rabbit come
loping into sight, running in and out among the pine stumps, and keeping
up the pitiful squealing sound as it ran.

"Must have been that," he thought; and he was about to run after it,
when he suddenly saw something small and elongated appear among the
bluebells. For a moment it appeared to be a large snake making its way
unnaturally in an undulating, vertical way, instead o