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Chattering jays
and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead, while ever and
anon the measured tapping of Nature's carpenter, the great green
woodpecker, sounded from each wayside grove. On either side, as
the path mounted, the long sweep of country broadened and
expanded, sloping down on the one side through yellow forest and
brown moor to the distant smoke of Lymington and the blue misty
channel which lay alongside the sky-line, while to the north the
woods rolled away, grove topping grove, to where in the furthest
distance the white spire of Salisbury stood out hard and clear
against the cloudless sky. To Alleyne whose days had been spent
in the low-lying coastland, the eager upland air and the wide
free country-side gave a sense of life and of the joy of living
which made his young blood tingle in his veins. Even the heavy
John was not unmoved by the beauty of their road, while the
bowman whistled lustily or sang snatches of French love songs in
a voice which might have scared the most stout-hearted maiden
that ever hearkened to serenade.


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