Algy decided to inspect some of the other burns in the area, so he flew down to a pleasant spot on the Mill Burn, where a pair of old alder trees grew out of the bank, with their toes in the water and their lichen-covered branches sweeping low across the stream to the other side. The water in the burn was quite deep, and at this spot it swirled round and round in circles, in a way that Algy loved to watch.

So long as the winter sunshine lasted it was positively pleasant just perching on the bank, looking at the water, but although the sky was a spring-like blue and white on one side, it was entirely black on the other, and Algy was sure that another battering shower of freezing hail and sleet was approaching rapidly.

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