Coot Club – Arthur Ransome

“But we’ll take one more turn across the Mere if that’ll do.” They swept across the Mere to the far reed-beds, turned and were half-way back when, almost in a shout, Dick cried, “There’s our one more bird. Look! It’s a hawk. Yellow head …” “Marsh Harrier,” said Tom.

“Jolly rare.” “There’s another,” said Dick. “Two of them.” One bird was high above the reeds. The other, the larger one, was rising towards it. Dick tried to see them with the glasses. “Better without,” he said. “They’re moving too quick. Not like stars. What’s that top one got in its claws?” The two birds were flying one above another and no longer so far apart.

Suddenly the first hawk dropped or threw from it the small bird it was carrying. The other turned almost on its back in the air and caught the quarry as it fell. “Oh, well held, sir,” said Tom, as he would have said on seeing a good pass at a football match. “Why not ‘madam’?” said the Admiral. “It ought to be ‘madam’,” said Port.

“It’s the cock bird feeding his Missis.” “She’s a jolly good catch,” said Tom. “My goodness, Dick,” said Starboard. “It’s a good thing you weren’t steering when you saw that.” But Dick did not hear her. He was already busy with his notebook. They sailed away now, straight through the long narrow dyke and back through Heigham Sounds.

Here the wind headed them. The Sounds grew narrower and narrower. Port took the tiller from her apprentice, who was glad to give it up in this place where the Teasel had hardly left one side of the channel before she was already at the other. “We can’t tack through here,” said Tom. “We’ll have to quant.” “Do let me,” said Dick. He was still glowing from the excitement of seeing those hawks, but he had been wanting to quant ever since that day when he had seen Tom doing it while the Death and Glory was towing the Teasel into Ranworth Broad.

“Do you think he can?” asked Tom. “Current’s with us, what there is of it,” said Starboard. “He’s only got to keep her moving. It’s a good chance to learn. Come on, Dick. I’ll give her a shove or two and then you be ready. Hi, you people, get the main-sheet hard in. We don’t want the boom swinging about.”

Also by Arthur Ransome The Arthur Ransome Society The Arthur Ransome Trust Copyright OceanofPDF.com OceanofPDF.com OceanofPDF.com OceanofPDF.com ILLUSTRATIONS FIRST NIGHT IN THE TITMOUSE “THE LAUNCH WAS SWINGING ROUND” TOM CAME SAILING HOME GEORGE OWDON WAS LOOKING DOWN AT HIM THEY HAD SEEN HIM THE TEASEL (SAILS AND INSIDE) ON HORNING STAITHE RIVER BURE (MAP) HULLABALOOS!

PAINTING OUT HER NAME DICK OVERBOARD IT WAS THE MARGOLETTA OFF AT LAST TIED UP TO THE DOLPHIN TIED UP FOR THE NIGHT GETTING A LIFT SHOPPING IN BECCLES LEE RAIL UNDER “DON’T LOSE SIGHT OF THAT POST!” BREYDON WATER (MAP) THE WRECK WAS DRIFTING AWAY THE COME ALONG SAYS “COME ALONG!” NORFOLK BROADS: NORTHERN RIVERS NORFOLK BROADS: SOUTHERN RIVERS OceanofPDF.com TO THE SKIPPER OF THE TITMOUSE OceanofPDF.com FIRST NIGHT IN THE TITMOUSE OceanofPDF.com BOOK ONE OceanofPDF.com NOTE Throughout Book One, readers who want to know where they are should use the map of northern rivers.

OceanofPDF.com CHAPTER I JUST IN TIME THORPE STATION at Norwich is a terminus. Trains from the middle of England and the south run in there, and if they are going on east and north by way of Wroxham, they run out of the station by the same way they ran in. Dick and Dorothea Callum had never been in Norfolk before, and for ten minutes they had been waiting in that station, sitting in the train, for fear it should go on again at once, as it had at Ipswich and Colchester and the few other stations at which it had stopped.

The journey was nearly over. They had only a few more miles to go, but Dorothea, whose mind was always busy with scenes that might do for the books she meant to write, was full of the thought of how dreadful it would be if old Mrs. Barrable, with whom they were going to stay, should be waiting on Wroxham station and the train should arrive without them. She would go back to her boat, for she was living in a boat somewhere down the river, and Dick and Dorothea, even if they did manage to reach Wroxham by some later train, would never be able to find her.

So when Dick had wanted to get out of the carriage and go along the platform to watch the engine being coupled on at the other end of the train, Dorothea had been very much against it. If Dick were to get out, she would have to get out too, lest one should be left behind and the other carried on to Wroxham alone. And if she got out, why then the train might go on without either of them and their luggage might end up anywhere. She looked at the two small suit-cases on the rack (“Don’t let them bring much luggage; there isn’t room,” Mrs. Barrable had written).

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: b7acbca61ab5dd14
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,025,045 bytes (2.885 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 425
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 486.67 minutes
• Total Words: 97,334
• Total Characters: 527,068
• Average Words per Page: 229.02
• Average Characters per Page: 1240.16

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