I seat myself in an easy-chair near the boathouse, a chair that surely some good fairy or the genii of this beautiful wildery has placed here for me. Then I become lapt in Elysium. Ten minutes ago I could not have believed that such scenery existed so near me.
What a lonesome delightful place to spend a long summer’s day in! What a place for a picnic or for a lover’s walk! Oh! to fancy it with a broad moon shining down from the sky and reflected in the water!
The road goes through among the trees, not far from the water’s edge, winding as the lake winds. The water to-day is like a sheet of glass, only every now and then and every here and there a leaping fish makes rings in it; swallows are skimming about everywhere, and seagulls go wheeling round or settle and float on the surface. We see many a covey of wild ducks too, but no creature—not even the hares and rabbits among the brackens—appear afraid of us.
Nowhere are the trees of great height, but there is hardly one you can give a name to which you will not find here by the banks of this lovely lonesome lake, to say nothing of the gorgeous and glowing undergrowth of wild shrubs and wild flowers.
Weary at last, because hungry, we returned to the green square where we had left our carriage, and, first giving Pea-blossom water, proceeded to have our own luncheon.
We had enough for the three of us, with plenty to spare for the feathered army of fowls that surrounded us. They were daring; they were greedy; they were insolent; and stole the food from our very fingers.
Ambition in this world, however, sometimes over-reaches itself. One half-bred chick at last stole a whole polonie, which was to have formed part of Bob’s dinner. Bob knew it, and looked woefully after the thieving chick; the brave little bird was hurrying off to find a quiet place in which to make its dinner.
It had reckoned rather rashly, though.
A cochin hen met the chick. “What daring audacity!” cried the hen. “Set you up with a whole polonie, indeed!”
A dig on the back sent the chick screaming away without the sausage, and the big hen secured it.