Chapter 80
Poultry Meg's FamilyPOULTRY MEG was the only person who lived in the new
stately dwelling that had been built for the fowls and ducks
belonging to the manor house. It stood there where once the old
knightly building had stood with its tower, its pointed gables, its
moat, and its drawbridge. Close by it was a wilderness of trees and
thicket; here the garden had been, and had stretched out to a great
lake, which was now moorland. Crows and choughs flew screaming over
the old trees, and there were crowds of birds; they did not seem to
get fewer when any one shot among them, but seemed rather to
increase. One heard the screaming into the poultry-house, where
Poultry Meg sat with the ducklings running to and fro over her
wooden shoes. She knew every fowl and every duck fr
