The long-drawn booming of the wind in the wood and the sobbing and moaning in themaples and oaks near the house, had made Lettie restless. She did not want to goanywhere, she did not want to do anything, so she insisted on my just going out with her asfar as the edge of the water. We crossed the tangle of fern and bracken, bramble and wildraspberry canes that spread in the open space before the house, and we went down thegrassy slope to the edge of Nethermere. The wind whipped up noisy little wavelets, and thecluck and clatter of these among the pebbles, the swish of the rushes and the freshening ofthe breeze against our faces, roused us.The tall meadow-sweet was in bud along the tiny beach and we walked knee-deepamong it, watching the foamy race of the ripples and the whitening of the willows on the farshore. At the place where Nethermere narrows to the upper end, and receives the brookfrom Strelley, the wood sweeps down and stands with its feet washed round with waters.We broke our way along the shore, crushing the sharp-scented wild mint, whose odourchecks the breath, and examining here and there among the marshy places ragged nests ofwater-fowl, now deserted. Some slim young lap-wings started at our approach, and spedlightly from us, their necks outstretched in straining fear of that which could not hurt them.One, two, fled cheeping into cover of the wood; almost instantly they coursed back again towhere we stood, to dart off from us at an angle, in an ecstasy of bewilderment and terror."What has frightened the crazy little things?" asked Lettie."I don't know. They've cheek enough sometimes; then they go whining, skelping off froma fancy as if they had a snake under their wings."Lettie however paid small attention to my eloquence. She pushed aside an elder bush, which graciously showered down upon her myriad crumbs from its flowers like slices ofbread, and bathed her in a medicinal scent. I followed her, taking my dose, and was startledto hear her sudden, "Oh, Cyril!"On the bank before us lay a black cat, both hindpaws torn and bloody in a trap. It had nodoubt been bounding forward after its prey when it was caught. It was gaunt and wild; nowonder it frightened the poor lap-wings into cheeping hysteria. It glared at us fiercely, growling low.