ON THE ROAD.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14030, 29 April 1911, Page 2

ON THE ROAD.

f (By Canterbury), (specially wwtten fob 'telk press.") To allay any friendly fears on my account, it may be bust to say at one? that I have not yet become the bearer of a blue blanket roll.: but it ! is possible to travel on the road with- j out being professionally bound to it j from day to day, and for the rest it j shortens a long distance to take notice ■ of small things. So I walked, and in ! the intervals of wishing that I had i driven instead, endeavoured to find '■ interest on the way. Out from thy \ entrance to a big lieid.. broad trails of! straw led down each of three crossing roads, and that I accepted as a sign ot the times. The tield had contained ; ;, wheat crop, and while the ploughing i teams wore busy turning in the stubble , other teams were carting away tho > threshed-out straw. There was going ■ to bo no waste o? what may prove j good ft-ed in a winter of need. Some of it was being carted to a farm five riiles distant. 'I've got mighty little! grass left now/ said the farmer, '"and i I expect our beasts will be glad of this ! solid straw before the winter is half! through."' In the grass by the road-| side I found two dotterels, lying a I yard npart. They wero qnito fresh, ! and I could see no mark oi shot upon i either, but one had it torn bruise at j the base ot its nock, the other a bruise and broken wing. Sow. why and how?j Yes, of course; there were the tele- j phone wires, right above the spot. Let; us reconstruct the scene of the trag- ; edy. A flock of dotterels on passage, j flying along fast, perhaps at night; each j cheerfully calling the usual single note ] of their flighting time. Thc-u suddenly i a twang, as they rush against the, wires, two dead dotterels as suddenly j dropping into the grass, and their j mates flying on into th»> darkness. j While srx-aking of telephone wires; if j a bird i,s seen in the distance, sitting contentedly on the topmost wire, tlie j clinnces arc about ten to one that it j will be a yellow-hammer. That is their favourite habit, and it gives one seriously to think how do the souls of inquisitive, people spend a few years in the bodies of yellow-hammers, and nro they thus ever listening for the latest 1 news? No? Well, there is no harm done, but likewise if you see a larger bird sitting on the telegraph post, it is pretty sure to bo a magpie, who is popularly supposed to bp a chatterer, and of the two I would sooner trust the quiet little yellow-hammer to preserve the secrets of tho wires. Blackberries in the road hedge are highly irregular, but still a welcome sight—no, never mind tho farmer just now. They are juicy and sweet, and quite a lot of them will fit easily inside, and one feels glad that the noxious weed-man must have been looking the other way. Mushrooms are showing here or there after the rain of three days ago, and an ancient inhabitant is busied in their collection. Also he brings forth a. note from his .store of knowledge. "I baint seen they so late since '98, when they was all about in May. .1 says it means a sharp winter.' . Nothing like a memory,. is there? I do not remember it 'DS was a hard winter or the reverse, but I still remember the great growth of "they mushrooms" by a single circumstance. J had been made to collect a store of them into a snerar-bnf?. which a lady insisted on takhuc before her on a horse, while I collected more- Then, naturally, she dropped the whole bagfull, and afterwards laughed, and I have never yet had an opportunity of saying all I felt at that moment. A haro cantering along the road would have been much more interesting at night, with "Canterbury" following in a motor instead of on foot. While tho run-tor lamps shone brightly ahead, the hare, after the manner of her kind, would havo kept raCjin.g on in the rays of light, until overtaken arid passed— possibly passed over—or, at the very last instant of safety,- it might havo turned quickly through an opening in tho hedge. S£ill thinking of motors, I found one at a cross-road, and there was a man inspecting it "cursorily" from underneath. 'At ordinary times that man is my friend, but now I went discreetly on the other side. Experience teaches, and sometimes a man under a motor is about the most dangerous animal that one may meet.