gyrating, hungry for foothold, with
larceny--not to say sacrilege--in their every wriggle: a godless sight
for a supporter of the Establishment. Though the rest was hidden, I knew
the legs well enough; they were usually attached to the body of Bill
Saunders, the peerless bad boy of the village. Bill's coveted booty,
too, I could easily guess at that; it came from the Vicar's store of
biscuits, kept (as I knew) in a cupboard along with his official
trappings. For a moment I hesitated; then I passed on my way. I protest
I was not on Bill's side; but then, neither was I on the Vicar's, and
there was something in this immoral morning which seemed to say that
perhaps, after all, Bill had as much right to the biscuits as the Vicar,
and would certainly enjoy them better; and anyhow it was a disputable
point, and no business of mine. Nature, who had accepted me for ally,
cared little who had the world's biscuits, and assuredly was not going
to let any friend of hers waste his time in playing policeman for
Society.

He was tugging at me anew, my insistent guide; and I felt sure, as I
rambled off in his wake, that he had more holiday matter to show me. And
so, indeed, he had; and all of it was to the same lawless tune. Like a
black pirate flag on the blue ocean of air, a hawk hung ominous; then,
plummet-wise, dropped to the hedgerow, whence there rose, thin and
shrill, a piteous voice of squealing. By the time I got there a whisk of
feathers on the turf--like scattered playbills--was all that remained to
tell of the tragedy just enacted. Yet Nature smiled and sang on,
pitiless, gay, impartial. To her, who took no sides, there was every bit
as much to be said for the hawk as for the chaffinch. Both were her
children, and she would show no preferences.

Further on, a hedgehog lay dead athwart the path--nay, more than dead;
decadent, distinctly; a sorry sight for one that had known the fellow in
more bustling circumstances. Nature might at least have paused to shed
one tear over this rough-jacketed little son of hers, for his wasted
aims, his cancelled ambitions, his whole career of usefulness cut
suddenly short. But not a bit of it! Jubilant as ever, her song went
bubbling on, and 'Death-in-Life'--and again, 'Life-in-Death,' were its
alternate burdens. And looking round, and seeing the sheep-nibbled heels
of turnips that dotted the ground, their hearts eaten out of them in
frost-bound days now over and done, I seemed to discern, f