They formed, in fact, a bridge over it.
Red and yellow fungi mark decaying places on the trunks and branches of
the trees; their colour is brightest when the boughs are bare. By a
streamlet wandering into the osier beds the winter gnats dance in the
sunshine, round about an old post covered with ivy, on which green
berries are thick. The warm sunshine gladdens the hearts of the moorhens
floating on the water yonder by the bushes, and their singular note,
"coorg-coorg," is uttered at intervals. In the plantation close to the
house a fox resides as safe as King Louis in "Quentin Durward,"
surrounded with his guards and archers and fortified towers, though
tokens of his midnight rambles, in the shape of bones, strew the front of
his castle. He crosses the lawn in sight of the windows occasionally, as
if he really knew and understood that his life is absolutely safe at
ordinary times, and that he need beware of nothing but the hounds.
THE BATHING SEASON
Most people who go on the West Pier at Brighton walk at once straight to
the farthest part. This is the order and custom of pier promenading; you
are to stalk along the deck till you reach the end, and there go round
and round the band in a circle like a horse tethered to an iron pin, or
else sit down and admire those who do go round and round.
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