But he was too late to send it whizzing at the great pike, which
had given a whisk with its tail and gone off to some lair in the
reeds to peacefully swallow the young duck, while the rest followed
their quacking father and mother back to the shelter of the reeds,
rushes, and sedge, where the moor-hen and her brood were already
safe, while, startled by the alarm, the heron bent down as it
spread its great gray wing's, sprang up, gave a few flaps and
flops, and began to sail round above the pool till it grew peaceful
again, when, stretching out its legs, the heron dropped back into
the water, stood motionless gazing down with meditative eyes as if
quite satisfied that no fish would touch it, and then, _flick_!
It had taken place so rapidly that Robin hardly saw the movement,
but certainly the heron's beak was darted in amongst the bottoms of
the reeds where they grew out of the water, and directly afterwards
the bird straightened itself again, to stand up with a kicking
green frog in its scissor-shaped beak.
Then there was a jerk or two, which altered the frog's position,
and the beak from being only a little way open was shut quite
close, and a knob appeared in the heron's long neck, went slowly
lower and lower, and then disappeared altogether.
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