Or watch the water when the mill was going.

That's my delight--to be near water flowing,

Dabbling or sailing boats or jumping stanks,

Or finding moorhens' nests along the banks.

"And one day father found a ship I'd built;

He took the cart-whip to me over that,

And I, half mad with pain, and sick with guilt,

Went up and hid in what we called the flat,

A dusty hole given over to the cat.

She kittened there; the kittens had worn paths