Partridges drummed there, rabbits darted along their beaten runways, and Joe had seen a woodcock, that shyest of all shy birds, disappear in glancing, shadowy flight, a ghostly, silent denizen of the ghostly, silent spaces of the forest.

Even as they gazed upon that inviting line of woods, the boys could see and hear the bluejays flash in swift flight from tree to tree and scream their joy of rage and love.

From the farther side of the pond two boys put out in a flat-bottomed boat.
"There's big Ben and Mop," cried Larry eagerly.

"Hello, Ben," he called across the pond.

"Goin' to school ?" "Yap," cried Mop, so denominated from the quantity and cut of the hair that crowned his head.