Breeches

“ Sometimes they wear leather breeches, made of Indian dressed elk, or deer skins, but more frequently thin trowsers.
On their legs they have Indian boots, or leggings, made of coarse woollen cloth, that either are wrapped round loosely and tied with garters, or laced upon the outside, and always come better than half-way up the thigh. ”

“ Their dress is admirably adapted to the severity of their climate. With their two pair of breeches made of reindeer or seal skin, the outer one having the hair outside and the inner one next the body, and their two jackets—of292 which the upper one is provided with a great hood—with their water-tight seal-skin boots, lined with the downy skins of birds, and their enormous gloves, they bid defiance to the severest cold, and even in the hardest weather pursue their occupations in the open air whenever the moon is in the sky, or during the doubtful meridian twilight. ”

“ Brechin, a town in Forfarshire, W. of Montrose, on the S. Esk, with a cathedral and an old round tower near it, 85 ft. high, the only one of the kind in Scotland besides being at Abernethy.
Breda (23) , fortified town, the capital of N. Brabant; a place of historical interest; Charles II. resided here for a time during his exile, and issued hence his declaration prior to his restoration.
Breeches Bible, the Geneva Bible, so called from its rendering in Gen. iii. 7, in which “aprons” is rendered “breeches.” ”

“ The name of Ten Broeck, or, as it was sometimes spelled, Tin Broeck, has been indifferently translated into Ten Breeches and Tin Breeches. Certain elegant and ingenious writers on the subject declare in favor of Tin, or rather Thin, Breeches; whence they infer that the original bearer of it was a poor but merry rogue, whose galligaskins were none of the soundest, and who, peradventure, [234] may have been the author of that truly philosophical stanza:
“Then why should we quarrel for riches,
Or any such glittering toys? ”

“ Their habit is shoes with but one sole apiece; stockings (which they call short hose) made of a warm stuff of divers colours, which they call tartan: as for breeches, many of them, nor their forefathers never wore any, but a jerkin of the same stuff that their hose is of, their garters being bands or wreaths of hay or straw, with a plaid about their shoulders, which is a mantle of divers colours, of much finer and lighter stuff than their hose, with blue flat caps on their heads, a handkerchief knit with two knots about their neck ”

“ Gigantic beeches, with straight trunks smooth up to the spreading crown, rise from amid mouldering leaves in which the huntsman sinks to the knee; gnarled oaks raise their rugged heads into the air as if to invite the birds of prey to nest there; dome-like limes [Pg 559] form such a close roof of leaves, that only a much-broken reflection of the sun’s rays trembles on the ground. In addition to the nightingale, which is everywhere abundant, the songsters of this forest are the song-thrush and blackbird, golden oriole and red-breast, chaffinch and wood-wren ”

“ But before ever it reached Stripes Skunk that wee black speck was a big brown bird.
The bird was close behind him. Her wings were half closed, just wide enough to steer by. She had fallen, like a shooting star, out of the sky. When she spread out her wings and tail to stop herself, just as she reached the ground, the wind roared in her feathers.
Stripes raised his head. He saw the big hooked beak, the strong curved claws of a hawk reach down. “These birds are just bound to kill me,” he thought. “This one is big enough. Even Bob White won’t dare to stop it.” ”

“ To make the breeching, cut the body, if possible, 7 ft. 4 in. long and about 4 in. wide. Turn it down to 4 ft. 10 in. long, the strong end less than the weak; edge and black, and crease two rows along the edges. Shave the ends, and mark a cross line about 11⁄2 in. from the centre of the bend on both sides and at each end of the body.
Now cut some pieces 1 ft. long for lining between the two marks in the bend and shave their ends; bend them flesh outwards, leaving one end about 1 in. shorter than the other; otherwise it will be bulky when inside the breeching. ”

“ As you must often have noted, there is among the breezes, a certain one that is extremely partial to animals. It is never happier than when ruffling the forelock of some big dapple-gray; teasing the tail of proud chanticleer; or cradling a gull in its wide-spreading arms. Indeed, it is the very “vagrant breeze” of which, doubtless, you have heard many times. ”

“ Why, she almost lives in the water. If I should wash my feathers all day long, they might get white, too. I will try it.”
So he flew from his nest in the woods, and lived for days near the lake.
Every day he washed his feathers from morning to night.
But his feathers did not get white.
They were just as black as ever.
But as the raven was not used to living in water, he caught a very bad cold.
So, at last, he flew back to his nest in the wood.
“It is no use,” he croaked. “I can never be white. I do not want to be white. Black feathers are pretty enough for me. Croak! Croak!” ”

“ The same is the case in Spain, Italy and Germany even. In France there are several varieties or sub-breeds of brach hounds. The old French brach, which is nothing more than the old type, preserved especially in the south, where it is called the Charles the Tenth brach, is about twenty-four inches in height, and has a white and a maroon coat, which is somewhat coarse. It often has a cleft nose and dew-claws on all the feet. The brach of the south scarcely differs from the preceding except in color. Its coat has a white ground covered with pale orange blotches and spots of the same color. ”

“ The throat, neck, breast, and upper part of the belly are of rich velvety black, shading into steel-blue at the sides; the lower portion of the belly is of copper-green. The beak of the adult is black, that of the young brown, and the foot black. The female is paler than her mate on the mantle, and white striped with black on the under side; her body is four inches and three-quarters long and seven and a half broad; the wing measures two inches and three-quarters and the tail one inch and a half. ”

“ Then came the rattle of chains and the voices of men. A boat was lowered, and Nonowit, safe under the cover of the low branches, saw it headed for his shore. Men with white skin and hair growing on their faces landed on the very rock on which he had been sitting. Their clothes were unlike any he had ever seen before, and their speech could not be understood. Cautiously he backed into the forest until he gained the branches of the oak in which he had slept. Yet that was unsafe, for the white men looked up into every tree, breaking the branches and tasting the sap. ”

“ Meantime the girl and boy chased off together.
"I believe the cows have wandered through the woods to the salt-marsh," declared Elizabeth; so they turned in that direction, following a crooked path for a long time. At last a breaking of the bushes opened a way to the discovery of five of the cows. The children were pushing on for the sixth, when a distant shout was heard on the opposite shore of the marshy stream. There in the mud and mire stood a horse and rider. Each step plunged them deeper and brought them nearer to the stream. ”

“ In size it is larger than most of its congeners, its length being about six and a half inches, and the span of the wings ten and a half inches. The body is slender, and the beak much elongated; the plumage, as its name indicates, is of very uniform colour; the head and neck mouse-grey, the back and wing-covers rusty brown, the wing and tail quills dark brown, edged with a faint rust-red; the lower part of the body is of a light reddish grey, the throat somewhat lighter, and the belly whitish, the eye light reddish brown, the beak black, and the feet reddish horn colour. ”

“ In a little while the South Breeze aroused himself and gazed intently toward the Northland. There among the slender waving grasses he saw a beautiful maiden. Her tall, graceful figure was clothed in delicate green, and her moccasins were of the same color. Her hair was yellow as gold. Merrily she danced about the prairie, nodding and smiling at Shawondasee, who became enchanted with her grace and beauty.
"'Tis the loveliest vision I've ever seen," murmured the South Breeze softly. "Surely she is a daughter of the Sun, and he has made her wonderful hair out of his own beams." ”

“ They are a short, thick-shouldered kind of fish, ready enough to rise, but sluggish to play afterwards. The place is pretty, too; the Swiss Alps at one side, and the Tyrol mountains at the other. Bregenz itself stands well, on the very verge of the lake, and although not ancient enough to be curious in architecture, has a picturesque air about it. The people are as primitive as anything one can well fancy, and wear a costume as ungracefully barbarous as any lover of nationality could desire. ”

“ As his curiosity was raised to know what it was, he went up close to the hedge, and found this tuft of hay was hollow, like a bowl. On putting aside the branches, he saw something like little balls within it, which were spotted, and of an oval shape. They lay close to each other, on something very soft. "Bless me," said Gregory, "this must be certainly what I have heard some people call a bird's nest, and the balls must be eggs. They are indeed less than our eggs, but then our hens are larger than these birds." ”

“ In other harbours of New South Wales, however—notably Jervis and Twofold Bays—these handsome fish are still plentiful, and there I have caught them winter and summer, during the day under a hot and blazing sun, and on dark, calm nights.
In shape the black bream is exactly as his brighter-hued brother, but his scales are of a dark colour, like partially tarnished silver; he is broader and heavier about the head and shoulders, and he swims in a more leisurely, though equally cautious, manner, always bringing-to the instant anything unusual attracts his attention. ”

“ They’re always hiding and pouncing out on some one. But birds are such fools, you know, lots of them never learn the difference.”
“Well, you wear such awful claws,” Stripes began.
“At your service,” said the hawk.
“Any time you need them. Just send word by a kingbird. But you don’t need me any longer just now.” And off she flew.
All the birds had been still as death while the hawk was talking to Stripes Skunk. Even the kingbirds and Coquillicot the Thrasher stayed hidden. But before the hawk was twenty wing-beats away, they came bursting from every bush and tree, calling and singing to him. ”

“ Now the young males fight with the old, dignified, and domineering leader of the herd; now the young females throng about the sire till he is compelled to drive them away with bites; now one or another of them attempts to escape, and rushes, with head against the wind and dilated nostrils, out into the steppe. The herdsman at once urges the horse he is riding to a gallop, and pursues the fugitive in mad haste up hill and down dale; in his right hand he holds the long herdsman’s crook, with a noose attached to one end ”

“ It is a notion that Sutherlandshire lochs need a large gaudy fly, but year by year I have been reducing the size of flies, and fining down the gut.
Again, what is called a fishing breeze is a mistake: if it comes, of course you must make the best of it; but to kill trout cleverly and quickly let me have fine tackle, a light 10ft. rod, and just a ruffle on the water, and if rain is falling and dimpling the water, the less wind the better; of course, if you fish big gaudy flies and double handed rods, you get little without a breeze. ”

“ Those woodchuck charms didn’t bother them a bit. They feasted on fieldmice. But the angry mice wouldn’t pay any attention to them.
“Ca—caa,” chuckled the hawk.
“Just the minute the moon comes up so I can see to hunt, I’ll be with you.”
But when the moon did come up, there wasn’t a single tail stirring!
You see, those mice didn’t know about potatoes. They never ate them because they didn’t like the taste, but they never knew other people did. Now potato plants don’t intend to be eaten. They hide the potatoes that they make to feed themselves—the ones we steal from them—down under the ground. ”

“ The strong straight beak is as long as, or longer, than the head, compressed at the sides and culmen; the sharp margins are turned inwards, the tip is incised, and in its entire surface, except in the region of the nostrils, covered with a hard, smooth, horny coat. The legs and toes are moderately long, the claw of the centre toe being curiously denticulated on its lower side. The long, broad, blunt wing has its second, third, and fourth quills of almost equal length; the short rounded tail is composed of from ten to twelve feathers. ”

“ Its feet are furnished with two toes, and its tail and crest, convoluted with the body and limbs, terminate in irregular scrolls. The patterns on the bulbous terminations of another brooch (Figs. 71, 72, 73) , have a curious resemblance to this one, while presenting points of difference. It is the same beast, almost in the same attitude, but differing in the treatment of the details in both representations. In Fig. 72 the body of the beast is covered with scale-like markings, and the same tendency of the convolutions of the crest to break off in scroll-like terminations is visible in both. ”

“ Half man and half tiger that he was, the Black Minorca, as self-appointed leader, reached Bryce first. The cholo was a squat, powerful little man, with more bounce to him than a rubber ball; leading his men by a dozen yards, he hesitated not an instant but dodged under the blow Bryce lashed out at him and came up inside the latter's guard, feeling for Bryce's throat. ”

“ One valuable creature which loves the white coral-sand as cordially as the pearl-oyster dreads it, is the black bêche-de-mer, [5] a very important item in the harvest of these seas, and one which affords a living to a multitude of white men and brown. There are four different sorts, of which the black is the largest. It resembles a gigantic leech, and grows to a length of about thirty inches. It is a gregarious animal, and is found in companies of brother-slugs wherever the water is clearest and most perfect peace prevails. ”