Some little way up the brook a pond opened from it.

At the entrance the bar of mud had hardly an inch of water; within there was a clear small space, and the rest all weeds, with moorhens' tracks.

The farther side of the pond was covered with bramble bushes.

It is a good plan to send the dogs into bushes growing on the banks of ponds; for though rabbits dislike water itself they are fond of sitting out in such cover near it.

A low railing enclosed the side towards me: the posts had slipped by the giving way of the soil, and hung over the still pool.
One of the rails--of willow--was eaten out into hollow cavities by the wasps, which came to it generation after generation for the materials of their nests.