A mass of cloud like flocks of wool, mottled and with small spaces of blue between, drifted slowly eastwards, and its last edge formed an arch over the western horizon, under which the sun shone.

The yellow vetchling had climbed up from the ditch and opened its flower, and there were young nuts on the hazel bough.

Far away in a copse a wood-pigeon called; nearer the blackbirds were whistling; a willow wren uttered his note high in the elm, and a distant yellowhammer sang to the sinking sun.
The brook had once been much wider, and in flood times rendered the Overboro' road almost impassable; for before a bridge was built it spread widely and crossed the highway--a rushing, though shallow, torrent fifty yards broad.

The stumps of the willows that had grown by it could still be found in places, and now and then an ancient 'bullpoll' was washed up.

This grass is so tough that the tufts or cushions it forms will last in water for fifty years, even when rooted up--decayed of course and black, but still distinguishable.