HI,/. Half -Solid ays /BERKELEY\ [ LIBRARY 1 UNIVERSITY OF 1 VS.CALIFORNIA/ PLAYHOUKS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS Otter feeding. p. 144 frontispiece PLAYHOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS (Kxymmttz of BY THE EEV. J. C. ATKINSON, D.C.L. CANON OF YORK AND INCUMBENT OF DANBY AUTHOR OF 'WALKS, TALKS, TRAVELS, AND EXPLOITS OF TWO SCHOOLBOYS,' ' FORTY YEARS IN A MOORLAND PARISH," ETC. f Illustrated b (Kohmatt ILontion MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1892 All rights reserved Mi f OS- 31 ^M First two Editions published elsewhere. First published by Macmillan and Co., March 1892 PEEFACE. MORE than thirty-two years have elapsed since the following pages were first committed to writing. Such a space, it hardly need be said, has been long enough to afford the author many and continuous opportunities of adding to his knowledge, and modifying conclusions he had previously arrived at. Among the conclusions in question, and by no means without connection with the accession of knowledge, one prominent one is the set of ideas involved in the so-called " British Village " theory. For the conviction has forced itself on his mind that the said theory the theory involved in the phrase "Ancient British Settlement," as applied in Cleveland is simply and utterly a baseless one. Having, for the purposes of the book, dealt with such an assumed " village " in one chapter in the present volume, namely, at pp. 117-121, I am con- 090 PREFACE. sequently obliged, while allowing the purely descriptive part to stand as essentially accurate, to modify, and even in some respects directly to reverse, some of the views expressed or implied. The description is in reality the description of the alleged "Ancient British Settlement" so described in the Ordnance Survey situate on the Danby North Moors close to the Easington boundary. I am quite unable now to suppose that the curious rows of shallow depressions (rather than pits) noticeable there have ever had any connection with human habitations or dwelling-places. Such terms, then, as " street," " floor," " houses," " residences," " local habitation," and the like, freely applied at the pages indicated, are all unluckily misapplied. The supposition of a " conical roof " with its adjuncts, as considered under the light of clearer knowledge and safer induction, seems to be based on no better founda- tion than that of imagination or assumption. The so-termed " Eath " is mere moonshine, and it is a pity the word was ever introduced into the notice of this and other Cleveland mounds. The fact really is that, in respect of by far the greater number of reputed Ancient British Villages, the evidence in favour of the assumption that the superficial cavities which have been PREFACE. Vll labelled "hut-pits," in reality indicate nothing more than the openings of mere shallow shafts sunk to the level of a subjacent seam of ironstone, amounts almost, if not quite, to demonstration. In some cases, indeed, the demonstration is absolute and conclusive. And as regards the " British Settlement " or " Village " described in the text, at the pages adverted to, although no traces of the reduction of iron ore at or near the actual site have been so far discovered, yet it is to be observed that the same seam of "impure ironstone" as lies in the close vicinity of the pits there, has not only been worked at a place a mile or two more to the eastward, and reduced in immediate proximity to the place of working, but that the furnace or " forge " at which the reduction was effected (locally termed the " kiln ") has given its name to no less than three enclosures just close by. Failing the " British Village " theory, of course the idea of a connected " Eath " associated with it essentially Irish in name and conception which seems to have been originated by Professor Phillips, falls to the ground coincidently with the failure. In fact there is no reasonable room for doubt that the mound or " houe " so characterised by him, was as much sepulchral as either of the viii PEEFACE. three constituents of the adjacent group of grave- mounds locally called " The Three Howes." Only it has been so dug into and otherwise mutilated that it is not possible at least not worth the labour and expense to apply the same test, I mean that of actual scientific examination, which has been applied by myself in the instance of the members of the said group. The proofs of their origin and intended purpose are now in the British Museum. Touching the suggestion I have made (p. 120) that it "may have been a Moot-hill," I may as well add that I do not personally think it the least likely. There are undoubtedly " Moot-hills," or hills of the character intended to be designated by that term, in the district, which deserve careful and systematic study, as well as delineation and description. But this more than questionable " Eath " of the Professor's is not one of them. There was a singularly fine one at Lofthouse less than thirty years ago (now rendered scarcely identifiable by the process and results of numerous building operations), and there is still a good one in the Mulgrave woods, near the Foss Mill. But the character of either of these is singularly different from that of this mound on the Danby Low Moors. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Elmdon School again Cross-dab Sliding and Skating Jack's Misadventure and Escape Bob's Narrative of a Day on the Saltings, and what he saw shot there .... pp. 1 24 CHAPTER II. Manufacture of Rabbit-nets Ferret, and Ferreting Rabbits Account of Robert Banks' experiences after his Shipwreck Goats and contrivances for catching them . . pp. 25 48 CHAPTER III. The Gamekeeper's Narrative continued Bird-catching Terrible Storm, and Wreck of another Ship Land Tortoises Large Lizard Bow and Arrows Battle with a Seal A Ducking Explorations Tameness of Birds "A Sail'' Taken otf the Island In England again pp.49 71 CHAPTER IV. Tackle-Talk Tying on a Hook Losing a big 'un Twisting a horsehair line ' by hand' Knotting a Fly-link Materials for Fly-making "Making a Hackle" Preparing wings Dubbing a body The " skew-winged Alderman" Un fait accompli pp. 7297 CONTENTS. CHAPTEK V. Antiquarian Expedition to Turley Moor and Hagley Beacon- Sundry Barrows opened, and Discoveries made The Beacon again Empty Cocoons of the Emperor Moth Ancient British Village So-called Rath Antiquarian Explanations, pp. 98121 CHAPTER VI. Who were 'Ancient Britons'? Manufacture of Paper Boxes Caterpillar Talk Book Collection of Butterflies and Moths- How to make it -A Tame Otter .... pp. 122 145 CHAPTER VII. Bottom- fishing Tussle with a large Perch --Ultimate Victory- Its Dissection Bait-fishing for Trout More Bites than Catches The Reason why Bottom-fishing with Float versus Bottom-fishing without A little Fish Talk . pp. 146167 CHAPTER VIII. An unexpected present Who's the Giver? How to recompense her? An Expedition to Chilton Crags ad Mere The River Leven, and what they saw near it The Mere The Flowering Rush, Bogbean, Golden Dock, and Marsh Speed- wellTeal's Nest Mr. Forster pp. 168189 CHAPTER IX. Chilton Mere and Crags Bittern's Cry Otters at Play The Bitterns 'flushed' and their Nest found Herons prove themselves clever Fishers A Climb The Crag reached at last Bird occupants Jackdaws', Kestrels', and Turtle- doves' Nests pp. 190210 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER X. Examination for Removes The Cousins not Floored Off for the Easter Holidays Conisthorpe Lodge Fishing Expedition to Croxteth Mere A Heavy Drive Sand- drifts Knapping Gun-flints The Devil's Punch-bowl Croxteth Mere, Boat, and Piscatory Proceedings pp. 211 236 CHAPTER XI. Plans ; Nesting or Pike-fishing ? First Lessons in Trolling A Pike caught Bob ' run at ' and ' taken ;' and, in turn, becomes the Taker Marsh Titmouse and Nest Redstart's Nest A dazed Water-rat A Eabbit in Trouble The End of the Trouble pp. 237 262 CHAPTER XII. A Walk to the Common The Great Gravel-pit Sand Martins and their Nests Thunder-bolts and Boat-shells Goat-suckers Fly ton Mere Black-headed Gulls, Water- Rail, and Black Tern, their Nests and Eggs Bob's Mischance, pp. 263 292 CHAPTER XITI. Summerton Broad Home-made Liggers Laying them No end of a Pike Bearded Titmouse and Nest Crested Grebe's Nest Drive Home pp. 293 315 CHAPTER XIY. Practice with the Casting- Net Snaring Jack Talk about Nets Nesting Ramble Nightjar's Nest and Eggs Waterhen's Nest in an Ivied Tree Blackcap's, Bullfinch's, Common Buzzard's, Sparrow-Hawk's, and Tawny-Owl's Nests and Eggs pp. 316339 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. French Partridge's Nest Return to Elmdon Bob and the Doctor don't agree Off to the Spinney The Keeper again Long-eared Owls and Grouses' Eggs Watching an Egg- stealer Ring Ousel and Nest Langton Tower Swifts', Starlings', Robin's, and Blue Tomtit's Nests in the Ruin Quail's Nest pp. 340 367 CHAPTER XVI. Play-hours' Recreations Dunchester Cricket Matches Break- ing-up Long Ned Ross Coracle Building Bob tries how a Turtle feels when turned over on to its back Early morn- ing start The River no hindrance to a straight Course Scenery Launching the Coracle Wye Fly -rod and Line The Salmon Chase pp. 368396 CHAPTER XVII. Fishing resumed Cider Dibbing with the Natural Fly A Slockdolager of a Trout caught with a Cockchafer Ned tries the depth of the River Skylark's and Treepipit's Nests Woodlark's Song and Nest The Evening Rise Total Catch, pp. 397-416 CHAPTER XVIII. Down the Wye Ned's great Grayling Hareborough once more Sparrows' Nests Starlings Waterhen's and Night- ingale's Nests Scarborough and Dr. Hazlehurst The Doctor gives Bob a new light in Fly-fishing Stunning Sea-fishing with White Fly At School once more Pursuits there A Day's Shooting with Sir Cuthbert Goodbye, pp. 417445 CHAPTER I. Elmdon School again Cross-dab Sliding and Skating Jack's Misadventure and Escape Bob's Narrative of a Day on the Saltings, and what he saw shot there. " Now, Jack, don't sit shivering there like a frozen-out frog or small pig in a rain -squall, but come out, man, and warm your blood with a chivy. I'll be < Dab/ Here's off ! who'll join ?" Such was our old friend Bob's salutation to his cousin, and general invitation to some half-score of his schoolfellows, who stood, or sat, or lounged as near as they could get to a very black-looking, no-warmth-suggesting school fire, one very cold frosty morning at the beginning of the February succeeding those Christmas holidays in the course of which Bob's memorable wildfowl-shooting cruise had taken place. Jack's nose was blue, and his cheeks dabbled- blue, and his fingers blue, at least those of them that weren't dead and white ; but he started up 2 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. on hearing the challenge, and cut off as hard as he could into the yard, followed by Bob, pelting after him ' like one o'clock ;' was in a second or two relieved by Gregory, who, in his turn, was 'crossed' by Scott; crossed again, and was ' touched' by Bob, in a spurt, directly after. He was off in pursuit of "Warwicker the next instant, and the game was fairly alive. Ten minutes of spirited ' cross-dab' sufficed to warm every youth- ful frame there, to extract every pair of hands from every pair of pockets, and to tinge every cheek with red in place of mottled blue or dirty white. While they were still panting from their recent exertions, Pettit's gruff voice was heard, as he came up in the rear of the group, exclaiming, "Now, you fellows, have you got your skates ready? Langley's big pond bears all over, and isn't the ice first-rate ! Can you skate, you chap what do they call you? You, Edwards, I mean !" " No, not much. At least, I never tried much," was Jack's answer. " Oh, we'll soon teach you ! All you want is a soft cushion tacked to your trousers behind, and to put your elbows in your pockets " " And then, if you fall on your nose, Jack, my boy, why, you know, you wont hurt yourself be- hind," interrupted Bob. SKATING. 3 " Small fellows should be seen and not heard, Bob, my man," was Jack's reply; " remember that for the future, my good little boy." And then turning to the big chap, " Thank you, Pettit for your kind advice. Fm afraid I'm not strong enough to pick you up, in return, when you fall ; but I'll get the old joiner to lengthen the legs of Mother Day's baby's go-cart, and then you'll be safe, you know, and your mother needn't mind your being out alone;" and leaping aside from the playful blow the big fellow aimed at him, he ran off with Bob to hunt up and see to the complete- ness of their several pairs of skates with their various straps and buckles. At twelve o'clock there was a general rush among the boys of the fourth and fifth forms to ask leave of Dr. Noble to go down to the ice. Having already ascertained personally that the ice was very sound and thick, he made no scruple of according the desired permission ; of course, with the usual caution to keep off that part of the pond which was known by the name of " the Hole ;" because there, both from the great depth of the water and from the fact that the strong spring which supplied the whole sheet of water rose in that place, the ice was almost invariably unsafe. Some twenty or five-and-twerity lads, of from thirteen or fourteen to seventeen or eighteen, were 4 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. in a very few minutes careering over the ice in all directions; a few on slides, which were speedily struck out, the greater part on the swifter, man Her skate. Bob and Jack were not among the first arrivals at the edge of the ice, and when they did come, Bob occupied himself with getting his cousin's skates properly put on, and launching him on his somewhat unfamiliar voyage. However, after divers balancings and straddlirigs, and one or two efforts at making an inverted V or an uncrossed A with his arms, body, and legs in which he usually came to ignominious grief from the treachery of his iron-shod feet and after having been at least twice picked up by Bob, he at last fairly got under weigh, though he certainly did not seem incon- veniently disposed to ' clap all steam on/ Bob, by this time, was sufficiently cold, and thought he would get a little warmth into himself and his fingers by going down one of the slides half a dozen times. Among the sliders was a gaunt, bony, awkward boy, whose name was Wood, but who was much more frequently addressed as ' Timber-toes/ from his wooden-leg style of progression and apparent lack of the species of articulation usually met with in human ankles and feet. Awkward, ungainly, springless, jointless as he was, or seemed to be, ID 'STRT KING-UP.' 5 walking or running, he was yet a capital slider. Upright, steady, with his legs well together and firmly placed, he sped along with extraordinary swiftness, and his usual way of gratifying a little bit of personal malice was by ' striking up' the boy to whom he owed the grudge, if he could catch him on a slide. Bob, who was as clever in sliding as in most other exercises, was not in first- rate favour with Timber- toes just at present, for he had ' taken him down' in class and had kept the place ; and, besides, he could give the ' baker's knock' in the slide much more artistically than could Timber-toes. And therefore the latter, see- ing Bob join the slide, determined to strike him up. However, Bob was quite wide awake, and seeing what was coming, just as Wood was within a yard of him and coming up with great velocity, cleverly dropped on his left knee, continuing to slide with the other foot. The result was, of course, that the assailant, instead of bringing his intended victim down with a heavy fall, was thrown him- self, and pitched forward with a good deal more force than was agreeable. He limped away, and did not resume his sliding until after Bob, having slid himself hot and knocked on the ice almost often enough to suggest the idea that he fancied himself a fisherman's footman knocking at the doors of all the distinguished carp in the water 6 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. for the purpose of leaving his master's card, had betaken himself to the side, and, with gimlet in hand, was just proceeding to apply his own skates to his feet. At this moment cries and shouts of " Edwards, Jack Edwards, back ! you'll be in ! >J made him look anxiously up, and he saw his cousin, helped forward by his own impetus and a favour- ing wind, skimming right on to the most dan- gerous part of the " Hole/' and evidently unable to stop himself. A moment later, the ice gave way, and he was immersed. Near to Bob stood an under master and three or four of the biggest boys without skates on. " Run to yonder shed, some fellow I" shouted Bob, pointing out the end of a thatched building about two hundred yards dis- tant, abutting on Langley's farm-yard; "you'll find two long ladders there, on the rafters over the waggons. Fetch one quick quick, for God's sake !' Mr. Field himself was half across the field almost before Bob had ceased speaking, and Ned Cautley, who had been delayed by having to kick off a half- fastened skate, got Bob's last charge, which was to fetch one of the ropes which he would find hanging to a hook under the waggons, and to un- fasten it as he came, but not uncoil it. A moment later, Bob might be seen approaching the broken edge on his stomach, dragging himself The Rescue. p. 7 IN PERIL. 7 along by the help of the gimlet. Jack had re- appeared, and made two or three wild strokes, which brought him to the edge. A desperate plunge and effort to get out by the help of the ice-edge resulted of course in another break, and poor Jack was again deeply immersed. Coming to the surface a second time, and swimming more wildly but more feebly than before, Bob's face caught his eye as he seized the ice in his despera- tion, almost on a level with his own, and not ten feet from him. " Jack, Jack \" hissed out Bob, rather than shouted, so intense was his anxiety to be under- stood " for your life, be steady !" " All right, Bob give us a hand," gasped the poor boy. " Be steady, Jack, only for a minute ; there's a ladder coming. Keep your legs quiet, and hold yourself up by the ice. Rest your chin upon it, if your hands are weak; only don't struggle. Hurrah ! here they come with the ladder !" Bob's forethought and coolness had saved his cousin. Confidence returned to him ; and though he felt deathly cold, still he kept up his spirits, and implicitly obeyed Bob's injunctions. In a minute or two more he saw the end of the ladder sliding along just past the ends of his fingers. " Bide a wee, Jack," cried Bob, trying to 8 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. imitate the Berwickshire accent; "let it get further over, and I'll be with you, my small man, in no time/' Almost before the ladder had ceased moving, Bob crawled along it like a cat, and had fast hold of his cousin by both wrists. " Gently, Jack take it easy. Now try." Jack made the effort at the right moment, and was safe on the ladder almost before the bystanders thought it possible. On hands and knees he crept along till he reached a safe part of the ice, and then urged along by a good skater on each side of him, he was at the bank in ten seconds, with his skates off in ten more, and half-way up to the school-house by the end of the minute, with Bob cutting along by his side ' like a lamplighter/ Jack was soon stripped and between the blankets of his bed, and such means further taken as in no long time resulted in restoring him to a state of comfortable warmth. He was as stiff the next day as if he had been dreadfully beaten, but otherwise seemed to be none the worse for his immersion. As for Bob, he got immense xvSog in the school for the ready coolness and decision he had displayed throughout, and Mr. Field noticed his ready thought, and thanked him for telling where the ladders were to be found. Bob took bis honours THANKS. 9 rather gruffly, declaring there was "nothing to make a fuss about. He had once seen a man in the water through failure of the ice, and had only noticed what had been done to save him." Jack's thanks were neither loud nor wordy. He got hold of his cousin's hand, and just said, "You saved me, Bob ; I knew it was all right the moment I saw your old face." But though he said so little to Bob, he said a good deal more to his mother, and Bob knew that he had two or three days after, when a letter addressed to Master Robert Benson, and signed " Elizabeth Edwards/' arrived. As he read it, there was something glistened on the back of his hand, which he had just drawn across his eyes; and he told Jack a minute or two after, and in a voice that sounded a little unsteady, that he was " a confounded old humbug : what did he want to tell his mother all that bosh for?" Jack, how- ever, took his reproaches very meekly, and didn't a bit mind being called a humbug by his cousin in that tone. But it was observed in all future skatings and he became a very fair skater before the frost broke up he took especial care to give "the Hole" a wide berth. Things after this went on in the school, and with our two friends among the boys, without the occurrence of anything very notable for several 10 PLAY-HOUES AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. weeks ; but one snowy day, not long after Jack's cold-bathing experiment, the two cousins were in their den with a couple of other 'fellows,' and they got talking about their last holiday, where they had been, and what they had done and seen. Bob's recollections and experiences were unani- mously considered the most interesting, and many were the questions touching his wildfowl-shooting which he was called upon to reply to. The swans were quite an exciting theme. " How did they look on the wing? Were their necks stretched out quite straight as they flew ? Didn't their white plumage look very beautiful ? Did they utter any sort of cry ? Did they fly very fast ?" Bob in reply stated that they " did fly fast he believed very fast. Mr. Spencer had told him that with a fair wind they could fly sixty or seventy miles in an hour. But they did not seem to move very fast. Perhaps that was from their great size. One of those Mr. Spencer shot from the boat, when he held it up by the head and bill, rather above his own head and he was nearly six feet tall touched the deck with its feet and tail. The other was less, and not white, but brown, being a young bird of the year. This weighed fifteen pounds only, the old one twenty pounds and a half. They made a good deal of noise as they flew, and their note was rather musical, he thought : a sort of melodious WILD SWANS. 11 clang, repeated several times in single tones. Some thought it sounded like the word f hoop' often repeated. The swans Mr. Spencer shot from the boat, and that one he got the day but one after, on the marshes, were all Hoopers, or common Wild Swans. Another gentleman shot three Bewick's Swans the same day Mr. Spencer got his two Hoopers, which he, Bob, saw. They were a great deal smaller than the Hoopers. And when he was at Dunchester, going to the station, Mr. Spencer pointed out to him a couple of Polish Swans which were hanging up at the game-dealer's in Head- street, and told him that kind of Wild Swans was not often seen so far south " " Did you see him shoot the one on the marshes 1" cried Jack. " To be sure I did," answered Bob. " Long Ned Lazy Ned, you know, you and I used to call him and I and Mr. Spencer had been out for a day on the Saltings, and we were just thinking of going home, when one of Mr. Spencer's men, who had come to bring the grub and carry the bag, came and told us that the swans were coming. But, if you fellows like there's no chance of our getting out while it snows like that so, if you fellows like, Fll tell you all about that day." " Oh ! do Bob, there's a good fellow." " Do, Benson, there's a brick." 12 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. " Go a-head, old chap." These were the three replies with which Bob's proposal was greeted. Bob, therefore, without further delay, commenced as follows : " The day after we were out in the ' Seafowl/ we went out rabbit-shooting, beating the hedges with spaniels, and having one shooter each side of the hedge ' doubling the hedge/ Mr. Spencer called it. And you remember the grove at Hareborough, Jack, that we could see from the drawing-room windows ? And there was another down Love- lane, which beautiful road was only about knee- deep in mud when the thaw came / never saw such a muddy place. Well, we beat both those, and Mr. Spencer let me shoot with his gun ever so many times, and I shot a hare and two rabbits, only I shot the hare about four yards off, and shattered her to bits. " Well, that evening, as we were sitting round the fire after dinner, Mr. Spencer says to Ned, 1 What say you to a day on the Saltings to- morrow ?' " Says Ned, ' I should like it very much. What will you do, though, with the teukes are they good to eat ?' " ' Why,' answered Mr. Spencer with a laugh, ' you shall try them if we get any ; but I don't go to the Saltings to get teukes at this time of year, FLIGHT-SHOOTING. 13 though I shoot them if there's nothing better when I'm there/ " ' What do you go for, then ? ' asked Ned. " ' Why, any sort of ' fowl ' ; and almost all sorts may be found there from time to time, except the deep-sea birds. Don't you remember I told you so ? ' " c Why, no, I can't say I do/ quoth Ned. " ' But I do, Mr. Spencer/ I could not help saying. ' You told us you had shot ' wild ducks, widgeon, dunbird ' " ' There, that's enough ; hold your jaw, you small walking vocabulary of birds' names/ inter- rupted lazy Ned, for which I ' owed him one/ and paid him two before the night was out. " c Then you'll go ?' asked Mr. Spencer. " < Willingly/ says Ned. " ( Then I propose we go down to ' flight' that is, get breakfast over by half-past six, and get down to the Point soon after seven.' " ' Most unwillingly/ I groaned out as like Ned's voice as I could make it. You know how he drawls when he has to talk about doing things he doesn't like, Jack. Everybody laughed but Lazybones, and he said, ' Turning out of bed at half-past five in the morning on the 10th of January, was no laughing matter/ at which every- body laughed more. 14 PLAY-HOUKS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. " I whispered something to Tay, who ran out, half bursting with trying not to laugh, and came back in less than no time, as demure as could be, with a great sailor's red woollen nightcap and a pair of yarn stockings such as they wear inside their great fishermen's boots, and a sampler. I had just said to him, ' Never mind, my pet ; it shan't be disturbed in the morning it shall lie in its bed and be cozy/ when she brought those articles to him with a curtsey, and said she hoped they would ' make him as comfortable as could be in his bed in the morning, when the rude men got up, and went out in their dirty boots ; and perhaps he might like the sampler to amuse himself with till they came back.' " You know how good-tempered Ned is ; and he laughed as much as any of us. Well, it was pre- sently settled that we should be called at a quarter to six, and be off as soon as we should have succeeded in stowing away a sufficiency of breakfast. " Morning came precious soon, I thought. I tumbled out as soon as ever I was called, and was half-dressed when Master Ned came to give me ' cold pig/ if he had found me in bed. We were both of us booted and buskined by the time Mr. Spencer was down, and wasn't the blazing-hot coffee good in the cold, raw, early morning 1 ? FLIGHT-SHOOTING. 15 " We were down at the Point in good time, and soon heard the whistle of approaching wings. Old Nep, the black retriever, was with us, and quite, as wide awake as we were. I saw by the motion of his ears that he heard fowl coming long before we could hear them. He looked up at his master to see if he was listening, gave his tail one wag of satisfaction as he sat, which made it thump hard against the ground; when Mr. Spencer spoke to him, saying, ' Aye, ducks, old fellow, but wide of us. No use shooting/ Ned had been left about a hundred and fifty yards behind us, nearer the wall, at a point Mr. Spencer knew was a good one. He had got Mr. Spencer's flight gun, and we heard him shoot just now. A minute after, a sharp, shrill, whistling sound approached us. A lot of widgeon right over us. Down came one with the first barrel, and two with the second. Nep and I got them all three in about half a minute. Before the gun was loaded again, three ducks, and then five more, flew by like the wind. Then came a lot of twenty or more, and we got two of them. One, a mallard such a beauty fell with a precious thump on the hard sheep-walk, and he skinned the whole of his breast with the fall. Ned wasn't idle all this time. He fired twice or three times, and once I heard the thump of his falling bird as plain as if I was close to him. After about twenty 16 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. minutes spent in loading and firing, and a fair lot of picking up, the < flight' was over, and we found that Ned and Mr. Spencer together had got eight ducks, three widgeon, two teal, and a couple of curlews, of which they each shot one, as Ned came up to Mr. Spencer's call. " It was light enough now to see to some distance. The clouds were all breaking away to the south- east, and a glorious sunrise was drawing on. There was a fishing-boat, such as we saw such lots of, you remember, Jack, moored out about half to three- quarters of a mile from the shore, and the sailors on board had been moving for some minutes past. -I can't tell you how distinctly we heard every sound aboard over the still water voices, words even; the rattle of a handspike or tholepin laid down or dropped on the deck; the dash of the deck-bucket dropped into the water at the side ; the splash of the water running from the scuppers ; all was as distinct as if the boat had been scarcely fifty instead of a thousand or twelve hundred yards from us. And oh ! what a gloriously beautiful sunrise. Dusky orange receding into bluish neutral-tint pink above, soon losing its duskiness and paling into molten gold, and thence into a fair, glowing primrose hue; and all mirrored in the placid surface of the sea. In a minute or two more the loveliest rays of yellow light were shot 'WALKING THE SALTINGS/ 17 out in all directions over the glowing waters, as the upper part of the sun began to show itself; but we had got oiled boots on, and gaiters on our legs, and guns on our shoulders, and we could not give very much time to looking at even a glorious sun-rise like that. So the wild fowl were handed over to Jem Basket, who now came up according to orders to carry the bag, as well as our lunch, and we three started off to ' walk the Saltings.' I stuck close to Mr. Spencer, you may depend, and Long Ned went by himself in another direc- tion from that we took ; and certainly he seemed to know both what he had to do and a tolerable good way of doing it. Well, ten minutes' walk brought us directly on to the elbow of a creek, and there, as Mr. Spencer said he expected, were curlews and redshanks feeding on the soft, wet ooze. Three of the teukes rose within reach, and Mr. Spencer shot one for me to see. The other two started 1 up eight or ten feet, nearly perpen- dicularly in their flight, almost the instant he fired, and then went flying off at their new level, screaming out their alarm, and perhaps calling their shot companion. % We soon resumed our walk. We crossed rills in lots : sometimes we had running jumps to take to clear them j then one came we could take a springing step across, or a standing jump. Then we came to a creek j but c 18 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. still on we went, slodging through the ooze, splash- ing through the shallow water. A minute or two after we walked right on to a couple of ducks in a little pool at the bend of a rill, and into them a moment later, one with each barrel. Roused by the shot, an old heron rose up, on deliberate flap- ping wing, out of a creek about a hundred yards a-head of us. Uttering his queer cry, which Ned said put him in mind of the word ' eronk/ pro- nounced by a tenor trombone learning to talk, he flapped leisurely along. " ( Did you ever see a heron in a hurry ?' said Mr. Spencer to me : '' I never did, and I have seen hundreds on these Saltings. As he takes wing, when you come upon him sud- denly in one of these deep places, and sails off, you may see his head at the end of his long neck rather uneasily, and very quaintly, thrust out on one side or the other, so as to enable him to get a look at you; but you see no hurried beats of the wing, no rushing flight, unsteady from its haste ; no precipitate whirlings and soarings, such as the redshank indulges in. On the contrary, he's steady enough in his paces to be the undertaker among birds. He will fight, too, if brought to bay, as he may be if only winged, and you go to pick him up without first knocking him on the head. And certainly I HERONS. 19 should not like to send old Nep after one which was only slightly wounded. That sharp, strong bill at the end of that long, flexile, steel-spring- like neck, is no joke when lanced out, with light- ning speed and unerring aim, at the face or eye of man or dog/ " Just as Mr. Spencer finished speaking we saw fifteen more, and then three others, and then again four, rise off the bed of the main creek and join the one we had disturbed. Fancy twenty-three old ' Frankies/ as the Hareborough people call them, all together and working along with their slow, flapping, measured wing-beat ! " ' Now, Bob/ said Mr. Spencer to me, as the herons went down on the mud on the further side of the great channel, ( we have a creek to cross here, and no mistake. Shall we go at it, or walk a mile about ?' " ' Oh !' said I, ' cross it, sir, if you ask me/ " ( Very well/ he replied, with a smile. * Then come along. Only mind to step quick and short, as you will see me. Never mind the water; it will only run in a little at the button-holes, and scarcely soak through the cloth of your trousers if you lose no time/ " So after him I went, taking little, quick, short steps, and never a spot of wet did I feel. Just as we were getting up the hard mud bank on to 20 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. the level again, Mr. Spencer, who was a bit before me* suddenly squatted low down, and called to me, in a sharp whisper, " ' Down, Bob down with your head ! Don't stir. Here come seven or eight geese straight for us, and not too high/ " I saw them coming on, on, with steady flight and conversational cackle. All at once they caught sight of us, but not till they were almost over us. In their alarm they broke their linear order, all huddling one over the other. As Mr. Spencer said afterwards, they 'made a mark as difficult to miss as a barn-door/ Slap into the middle of them went the blue cartridge out of the left barrel, scattering them on every side that is, those which could still fly and the green cartridge out of the second barrel was sent after one which was making off to the left with a leg down. Down he came, as the gun sounded, as dead as a hammer. My word ! how pleased old Nep looked when he saw them tumbling, two dead, and another, with trailing wing, making off to the water of the main channel. ' After him, Nep !' shouted Mr. Spencer ; e after him before he reaches the water/ The old dog didn't want to be bid twice, you may be sure; and as soon as Mr. Spencer saw him gone, he said to me, ' Now, Bob, while I'm loading you mark that other fly- WILD GEESE AND CURLEW. 21 ing there towards the fields. He's hard hit, and will come down before he has gone half a mile, if only we can mark where/ "I kept my eye on him, and just as Mr. Spencer had capped both barrels, I saw him turn over and drop, not a hundred yards from the furthest ' Red Hill/ You remember it, Jack? The little one where there were no rabbits at all. I showed Mr. Spencer where he lay, and then we went on with our walk, and before long we'd got a teal, a golden-eye, and a scaup-duck. " Just as we turned from the creek to go for the goose on the marshes White-fronted Wild-geese Mr. Spencer said they were a curlew started out from behind an angle that had concealed us from him, and before the gun could be pointed at him he had made a scrambling sort of flight to forty or forty-five yards off. But he was not to get any further ; and down he came when the trigger was pulled, with a broken wing, on to the ooze. He picked himself up and started off, running ' like shot when the bag bursts/ My uncle wouldn't let Nep go after him, as he wanted him with un- injured plumage, and so I got him to let me go. I soon came up with him, and then he turned and showed fight/' " Why, he'd nothing to fight with," interposed Jack. u His long curved bill, neither strong nor sharp, is no weapon." 22 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. "No/' continued Bob, "that it isn't; and yet it's the best he has. However, what I meant was, that he turned upon me, and scooping up the soft ooze with his uninjured wing-, half blinded me with it as he flung it over my face and eyes. However, it was the worst thing he could have done, for, stopping to do it, it gave me the opportunity of catching him. The next thing we saw was a flock of oxbirds, with some grey plover among them. Ned came up with us just as we saw them settle down on a spit of mud, and couldn't help trying to get a shot at them. However, it was no use; there were too many wary eyes wide open to let him get within fair shot of them ; so we left them." " Well, Bob, I should have thought that they left you," cried Jack. " Young fellow, you're getting impudent. I'm afraid I haven't licked you enough lately. Well, then, to please you, I'll say, the dunlins left us, and we left the Saltings and went to pick up the goose, killing a bar-tailed god wit, however, as we went that is, Ned did. And, you may depend upon it, Jem, who had joined company again nearly an hour since, began to want his bag light- ened once more. " We were very near a sort of shepherd's house in which Jem had placed the eatables, and Long 'THE BAG.' 23 Ned, who had been carrying a ten-pound gun all the morning, said he was tired as well as hungry j and so we went in to rest, and to get some grub. But, first, we ranged the contents of our bag, and a precious lot there was. Four geese, three cur- lews, ten ducks, three widgeon, two teal, three red- shanks, a snipe, a godwit, a scaup-duck, and a golden-eye. " Ned seemed to think ' walking the Saltings' was an appetizing pastime. But, at last, he couldn't tuck in another morsel of pie, nor swig any more bitter beer ; and so we began to think of moving homewards. Just as we were getting up to go, Jem came rushing in, breathless. ' Hallo, Jem ! what's the matter ?' cried Mr. Spencer. " ' Aw, measter, here be six swans a-cooming.' " I guess we weren't long in cutting out, under his guidance at least, my uncle and I and, bent double, we hurried along, under cover of a hedge, to a corner whence we saw the noble birds passing along about seventy yards off. Mr. Spencer drew up in a moment and let fly both barrels, aiming at the head of the leader ; and ' almost as much to his surprise as his gratification/ he said we saw the swan throw up his head with a hasty jerk, and then with two or three purposeless flappings of his huge wings drop, a dead bird, to the ground. And with this crowning success, and a rapid shot 24 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. at a knot of golden plover which flitted across us as we reached the uplands near Mr. Spencer's house two of them stopping to be picked up we ended our ' walking the Saltings/' And there's the bell, and here's off to answer my name." CHAPTEE II. Manufacture of Rabbit-nets Ferret, and Ferreting Rabbits- Account of Robert Banks' experiences after his Shipwreck Goats and contrivances for catching them. THE play-hours of several of the unfavourable days which succeeded that on which the narrative re- corded in our last chapter was given by Bob, were anything but idly spent by that young gentleman and his cousin. As soon as ever school-hours were over, they retired to their " den," and directly any school preparations which had to be made were completed, out came string, with needles and meshes of large size, and diligently did the lads work away at the manufacture of nets, which, when stretched and spread fairly out, would cover nearly a square yard each. As soon as the netting of one was finished, whether by Bob or his cousin, it came into the hands of the former for final fitting and completion. This he effected as follows : He selected from his box, which contained an assortment of matters as 26 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. various and miscellaneous as the shop of a, dealer in " marine stores/' two pieces of hard wood, which in shape put one in mind of the section of a minia- ture dumb-bell taken lengthwise through the grip as well as through the balls at each end. The whole was perhaps three inches in length, and through each circular end was bored or burnt a neat, round, smooth hole. Each of these had one end of the net secured very neatly and tightly to its thinner part, loop by loop, and then a long and strong string was run through the holes in the wood, arid each side mesh of the net in order, so as to make a slide, and knotted securely, that it might not slip out; and this done, the rabbit-net was complete. They succeeded in getting a dozen of these nets finished by the time the weather became tolerably settled again, and it was their good friend Sir Cuthbert had set them on making them. They had fallen in with him in one of their walks about a fortnight before, just after the snow had caused the fact to be noticed that several rabbits had established themselves in the Wilderness, at the Park. Sir Cuthbert was not very willing to have a gun fired anywhere near the gardens or the lake, or, indeed, in the park at all. And he did not like trapping the rabbits much better, for he thought that plan entailed shocking cruelty on the poor trapped creatures, mutilated as they were sure to RABBIT-NETTING. 27 be, and exposed perhaps for eight or ten hours besides to severe frost or continued cold rain or snow. So he had given orders that Banks should ferret and net them. It so happened that Banks had no nets, the rabbits being generally kept down on the estate, and what few there were shot as occasion offered or required. Banks had mentioned this want of his in the presence of the two lads, and Bob immediately volunteered to make the necessary articles, saying he had made a lot the winter before for use at home during his holidays, and was sure he could make them right. " Very well/' said Sir Cuthbert, you shall make them, on condition you come and apply them when they are made. Only let Banks know when they are finished, and either he or James Watt shall meet you with the ferrets." And so it was settled ; and now the nets were complete, Thursday was come, leave was asked and obtained, and the lads were in Wrilton pleasure- grounds by soon after half-past twelve. Banks himself was there before them, and was just muzzling a strong and very large yellow ferret, one of a couple he kept for the especial purpose of ferreting rabbits, if ever it were required. This creature was a great pet, and was almost as familiar with its master as the Scotch terrier, Pepper, of whom \ve have already made mention. It even 28 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. seemed to like to be handled by him, and would walk in and out of his pockets. It would eat or drink almost anything that was offered to it, and being often suffered to run about in his sitting- room, came in occasionally for tastes of strange viands. One day it found a little cider, which had been spilt on the floor, and proceeded to lap it. On seeing this, the keeper offered it some in a saucer. The creature approved it highly, and to all appearance would have taken enough to make itself tipsy, if it had been supplied. It was fully as playful as a kitten, and frolicked about, throwing its lithe body into the strangest contortions, and uttering quaint, rather sharp, grunt-like sounds, expressive of pleasure and enjoyment. As a ferret for " rabbi ting" purposes it was unrivalled. Though muzzled when sent into the hole for its great size and strength enabled it to master and kill a sulky rabbit in a very brief space it had a way of applying its fore-paws to the obstinate victim, scratching off all the fur, and through the skin, in any accessible spot, in very quick style, that gene- rally compelled even the most resolutely "stupid" bunny to bolt." As soon as Bob came up and saw what the gamekeeper was doing, he exclaimed " Oh ! Robert, Fm so glad to see you don't adopt that cruel way of muzzling your ferret MUZZLING A FEKRET. 29 some people do, by putting stitches through its lips." " Oh ! no, Master Kobert, I could not find it in my heart to treat any ferret so, and least of all, my old pet Timothy here. And if Tim could drag 'em out as well as kill 'em, I wouldn't muzzle him even this way. For he would if he could ; wouldn't you, old chap ? He has often brought me small ones out. Haven't you, old fellow ?" " Please, Mr. Banks, will you let me see how you do it ?" asked Jack. " To be sure I will, Master Edwards. Look here, I take a piece of this fine, but strong twine, and tie it round the creature's under jaw, taking care not to have the tongue tied in, and arranging the twine so as to fall behind these sharp teeth ; the knot you see is tied under Tim's chin. Then the two ends are brought round so as to cross over his snout, where I tie another knot, not too tight; only tight enough not to slip off, and not by any means so much so as to be painful to him, or a hindrance to the use of his nose. Then I take the two ends both together, and bring them up the middle of the forehead to meet the two ends of this other piece of twine, which I have tied, with a knot that will not slip, round his throat close to the head ; and, lastly, I tie all compactly here at the top. And there's a muzzle completed, which, if 30 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. well managed,, is as secure as the cruel way of putting stitches through the lips on each side,, and which certainly gives the ferret no pain, though, of course, it must give him a little inconvenience. Still, not so much as to make me doubt what the animal would say, if it could speak, and you gave it the choice between ' no muzzle and no hunt/ or ' a muzzle and a jolly bit of ferret's fun in a rabbit burrow/ r ' " Ah I" said Bob, " I suppose you think it would say, ' Why, what a precious old muff you are to ask me/ " " Well, Master Robert, I dare say if Tim had been brought up among schoolboys, he'd talk as much or, mayhap, as little like other Christians, as schoolboys often do." " There, Bob, ' there's one for your nob/ * put that in your pipe and } " (t See how the cap fits my f proper* cousin, Jack, who never talks slang, good boy that he is," interrupted Bob, with a hearty laugh, joined in by Jack as well, but much and gravely reprehended by Banks, who reminded them that rabbits had ears and sharp ones, and it was not the best way to prepare them to " bolt well," to make no end of a row at their doors. Rendered demurely silent by this admonition, the boys proceeded to set their nets at a group of holes, SETTING THE NETS. 81 which were pronounced by the gamekeeper to be all connected. Bob set his three with great readi- ness and skill ; Jack, however, who only knew how in theory, was neither so expeditious nor so happy in the result attained, for the first he set fell aside from the hole it was intended to cover, and the peg attached to the slide was so imperfectly set in that it was very questionable if it would have held firmly enough to roll a bolting rabbit up. There was also rather a fault about the second of the two set by him. Banks, after watching the procedure, said to him as he left it for done " Master Edwards, wouldn't it be a good plan to make sure that the slide-string will run ?" " To be sure it will," answered Jack ; " I saw Bob try them all yesterday ; and they all ( bagged up' beautifully." " I am sure they did, sir," replied Banks ; " but I thought you hadn't got that one quite ship-shape." "Oh ! yes, it's all right," quoth Jack; " no fear of that," " Well, sir, perhaps it may. Only I thought it might be more likely to if it hadn't got that twist there at the end near the peg." " Jack, you jolly muff," broke in Bob, who had been listening to the latter part of the colloquy, and had observed the net in consequence ; " try it yourself. Take your cap in your hand, and put it 82 PLAY-HOUES AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. in under the low side of the net, and then push into the net with it as much like a bolting rabbit as you can." Jack took the hint, and managed a very lame imitation of rabbit " taking the net ;" when, to his considerable discomfiture, the slide refused to run, and the net showed not the slightest incli- nation to " bag." " See here, old fellow," cried Bob, taking the net in his hand ; " you have got a turn and a half in the net, close to the wood slider ; and, besides that, you have not seen the slider clear of the meshes, it is turned inwards through one of them. I say, suppose you had a neck as long as an old heron's, and you proceeded, by way of preparation for your supper, to twist your head under your left arm, and then to fix your face so as to look back- wards over your right shoulder would it be a help to you in the process of swallowing?" " Why, not exactly, I should say," laughed Jack ; " but I see what you mean. There, will that please you, old grumbler ?" " Aye, that'll do ; and stick that other peg in, so that a flea's hop wouldn't knock it out, and we shall be all right." So the ferret was put under one of the nets, and the instant he entered the burrow shook his tail with a peculiar shiver, erecting the hair on it as he FERRETING. 33 did so, and making it look three times as big as a moment before an action which would have assured his master, had not he been already certain by signs of other sorts, that there was a rabbit or more in the hole. A minute or two of still silence ; and then fol- lowed a peculiar hollow sound of movement under- ground. Next, Jack saw the nose of a rabbit close on one of the nets he had to watch, and then recede again. The moment after, the underground noise became louder, as if the motion were more rapid ; and, in an instant, the rabbit Jack had seen, with a rush outwards, rolled itself up in the net ; and another, following close at its heels, escaped, and hastened with all the speed of its four legs, to another set of holes about fifty yards distant. A few seconds later another rabbit was safe in one of Bob's nets, and was secured by him and killed, and his net reset, before Jack had succeeded in extri- cating his captive from the meshes which en- tangled it. The ferret soon appeared at one of the orifices, and then retired, and reappeared at another, and then at a third, after which it refused to return at all conduct which Banks interpreted as meaning that there were no more rabbits there, at all events. They went now to the hole into which the escaped rabbit had betaken itself. There seemed to be but two vents here, and these were D 34 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. speedily netted, and the ferret turned in. Five minutes, ten minutes passed, but no sound. " That chap is sulky," said the keeper ; " but Tim will be too much for him." And Tim ivas f too much for him,' for he bolted in a few moments more, and was found to be considerably the worse on his rump for the perse- vering application of Tim's claws. A third set of holes was then tried, but only one rabbit was dislodged and caught. In the meantime Banks had had his eye once or twice on a portion of the old masonry, which in former days had been connected with the draw- bridge, and now formed a sort of abutment to the modern substitute for that feudal appendage to the Castle. Whistling Pepper, who had been a most attentive observer of all the proceedings, and had seemed to regard them with quite a critical eye, he went on to the fragment in question, saying as if to himself, " I shouldn't wonder if there's another or two there. Hie, Pepper, seek rabbit, old fellow ! Hie, there !" Pepper knew very well, it seemed, what it was that was required of him, and proceeded to inquire into the possibility that one or other of the holes in the masonry might be the door to a rabbit's home. Two of these holes appeared to give him something verging at least on the desired informa- PEPPER AT WATCH. 35 fcion ; and he tried them with sniffing olfactories three or four times. Turning the angle of the old wall, his presumption appeared to be turned into certainty at once, and looking up at his master, he lay down with his nose on his paws, as close as he could get to the stonework. " All right, my man; we'll soon have it out, and you shall catch it if it bolts this way." Nets were set at the two holes on the other side, and as no other vent on the dog's side could be seen but the one at which he lay, Banks turned in the ferret, simply saying to Pepper the one word, "Watch." The dog's position was changed in an instant. He withdrew from before the hole to one side of it, and his limbs were drawn up for a rapid spring. With his head slightly bent down, and rather side- ways, towards the hole, regarding it intently, and with his ears in perpetual motion, he stood motion- less, with one paw slightly raised. Movements were heard in the wall noise as of hasty desultory rushes. The dog positively trembled with excite- ment. A few moments more, and a rabbit bolted. The action of a steel spring was scarcely more in stantaneous than Pepper's pounce, andthe rabbit had scarcely time to squeak before Banks had it gripped securely, and cried again to Pepper, "Watch." The intelligent creature was at his post in an in- 36 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. stant, and just in time to pounce on a second rabbit, which he held and killed in a very brief space, and then returned unbidden to his post once again. He did not stand at it very long, for the ferret protruded his nose, and showed no inclina- tion to return, which Pepper seemed quite to understand as intimating that there was no further need of a canine sentinel at that portal. The terrier was now set to work through some of the underwood in the Wilderness, in case there might be an outlying rabbit about. But nothing was met with except a large rat, which Mr. Pepper, after a brief and exciting chase, laid hold of, and with one shake slew, secundum artem. It was now beginning to rain rather smartly, so Banks suggested to the lads to adjourn to the gardener's lodge until it cleared up again. The suggestion was speedily acted on, and the trio found a good fire and nobody there to interfere with them. Ten minutes, twenty minutes passed, and the rain still fell thick. All at once Bob blurted out, "I say, Robert, would you mind telling my cousin some of your experiences on the island, after the ship wreck ?" " Oh, do, Mr. Banks, please !" chimed in Jack ; " I have so often wished to ask you." " Well, young gentlemen, that I will, with all BANKS' ADVENTURES. 37 the pleasure in life. Shall I begin at the begin- ning, or where ?" " Oh \" answered Bob, " 1 told my cousin all about it one day, up to the time you all three got safe ashore; and then I said to him, if he wanted to hear any more he must ask you, and I promise you Fm not going to sleep myself." So Banks began as follows : " Well, you see, it was some time before Mas- ter Robert's uncle, with all his care and kindness, could get me round so far as to be able to stand again; and when, at last, I did get myself up- right once more, I felt very much as if one of these here rabbits would have knocked me fairly over if he had taken a run and a jump at me. And before long, the pain in my hurt side began to be dreadful. However, I was forced to make the best of it, and night was coming on, and we had heard a sound or two we did not like. It turned out afterwards to be the voice of a biggish mon- key ; but it sounded cruel like the roar of a wild beast to our listening ears. So we had to con- trive for a resting-place for the night. Mr. Ben- son found a tree which had lost its top, somehow, years before, and which had sent up a lot oi boughs, from just below the broken part, in sucn a way that, with the aid of some small branches cut from other trees and strewed over with grass and 38 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. moss (of both of which there was plenty in places), it would have made a fair resting-place for the night for men much less wearied than we were. But, for my life, I could not get up, and I was too big to be carried up like a baby, you know. Mr. Benson wouldn't hear of leaving me below while he went above, even though we soon had a good fire blazing." ' ' A fire ! How ever did you get that ?" in- quired Jack. " Why, you see, sir, Mr. Benson had laid a gun on to the raft, with a lot of shot and some pow- der; and, luckily enough, he had also put a powder-flask, about half full, into his pocket. The powder was all as wet as could be ; but we spread some of the black paste thinly on some very dry grass and moss we found about?, and the sun soon dried it. We didn't want for heat, I can tell you. And when it was dry, my old sailor- knife, and some white-looking flints we found plenty of, soon produced fire. " Well, as I was saying, Mr. Benson would not get into the tree if I couldn't, and so something else had to be thought of. The boy was uncom- mon useful, to be sure. He found water, he picked up a lot of shell-fish, and at last he came to ask Mr. Benson to look at a place which he thought might do for f a bedroom/ Aye, you may laugh. THE BEDROOM. 39 young gentlemen, but that boy's good spirits did a deal to keep us men up, besides his helping us by his ready observation. The bedroom, as he called it, was the top of a rock which had rolled down out of the cliff above. It was middling flat, and about two yards and a half over, with some long grass growing in the rifts here and there. There was an easy way to get on to it at one side, and on all the other sides nothing but sheer high walls. Mr. Benson saw immediately that it would do, and that he could fortify the passage to it so as to be safe against half the wild beasts in the world. Well, we supped on shell-fish and water, and the gentleman and the lad helped me up there, and then they stopped up the passage-way with stones and boughs. And so we spent the night. In spite of the pain I was in, I was so much exhausted and worn out that I slept for hours. And some- how, though I expected to be as bad as I could be with inflammation in the morning, I was better when I woke ; and though very stiff indeed, yet still able to move about a bit. " One of the first things that we noticed in the morning was a great piece of our raft on the sand, high and dry. We weren't long in going to it, you may be sure; and not far off we found the gun. But that was no use. Not ten yards further we found a hatchet. That was a treasure indeed. 40 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. Then we came upon a small carpenter's chest ; but broken, and many of its contents lost. What was left we took care enough of, I can tell you. " Nothing else could we find of all we had had on the raft. But about a mile more to the west, where the beach was smooth and the rocks had for some distance ceased, we found the boat that we had seen swamped. It was a good deal shattered in one or two places ; but, with a portion of our raft, and the help of some of the tools, we managed after a day or two to make it hold water tolerably. About the fourth day I was so much better that I began to be of some little use, and we planned a voyage to the place where the ship struck. We ef- fected our trip very well, but got little to repay us ; a little cordage, a ship's glass, some sailcloth, a few bottles of spirits in a case (which was so fixed in a hole in the rocks, we had to break it out), a large iron pot, and half a frying pan, was about the sum total of what we got from the wreck. The ship itself was utterly gone to pieces. " So we set out on our return voyage. Rowing had loosened some of our patches, and the water began to come in faster than we could bale it out. However, we made the shore safely; though the boat was too full to permit us to secure her. For- tunately, it was perfectly calm; and so she re- mained where we beached her, and a deal of the CAPABILITIES OP THE ISLAND. 41 water had run out before the next tide reached, and then we contrived to make a better job. " But I must tell you something about the island. Your uncle, Master Bob, made out, the day after we reached it, that it was about four miles across, and perhaps six or seven long. He saw monkeys upon it, and was greatly relieved by hearing one of them make exactly that noise which had made us all so uneasy overnight. Many sorts of birds also he saw, several of the parrot kind. All of them seemed very tame, but not tame enough to let him come near them to catch them. But what he looked at most wishfully were the goats, of which there seemed to be a good many about the rugged parts of the island, and that means three quarters of the whole. For, all of it towards the east was hilly and rough, with cliffs overhanging the sea. One largish brook emptied itself about a quarter of a mile from where we first reached the land, and in this the gentleman saw many fish. In the sea, too, we knew there were vast quantities ; we could see them in the clear water quite plain. " As to eatable fruits, we found several. One was a largish nut, dry and sweet. There were also wild grapes, and two or three others that we could not name. By great good fortune I had better than a dozen fishhooks upon me when we 42 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. reached land, though I did not remember them at first. I soon had a fishing-line rigged, and we caught half-a-dozen fine fish in a very short time. Besides, we met with signs which convinced us that turtles frequented the island. So we had no great fear of want of food, for the present, at all events. "One of the first things we did after I got sound enough to work, was to strip a tall young tree, which stood well up on one of the hills nearest the sea, of all its boughs, only leaving some ends to climb by; then to fix a block at its summit, and reeve running tackle through it, to which we could affix, in a few seconds, a good large piece of sailcloth, and run it up to the head of our living flagstaff in a trice. Not far from it we had also a large heap of dry wood, prepared for instant light- ing if we saw a sail at any time as the evening drew on, the sailcloth being intended to serve as a daylight signal. " These matters being attended to, we began to . turn our thoughts to other concerns. Once our minds were at rest about wild beasts and we never saw anything of the sort bigger than an animal of the cat kind (which was actually less in size than our domestic pussy) all the time we were there we found no difficulty about what the boy had called ' a bedroom/' There were several caves along LAYING UP FOR A RAINY DAY. 43 the coast, none of them, however, very deep, and all of them with broad openings, but which still gave us all the shelter we required. One of these, with a floor of beautiful dry, white sand, we made our home after the third night, and before ten days were gone we had provided for something like com- fort inside, and security even from cold without, should we be still there when the cold weather came. " Mr. Benson said there would probably be a wet season, during which we should find it almost impossible to get out, and should experience great difficulty in providing our daily rations if we had not been able to succeed in victualling ourselves before the time of trial came. So we stored what- ever we could. We laid up a great many nuts, we split a good many fish and dried them in the sun. This was not difficult to do ; for, for some hours daily, some of the rocks that lay fair for the sun's hottest beams were so hot it was not quite pleasant to touch them with one's face, or even one's hand, sometimes. It wasn't tempting food, but still it was food, and we hoped it would keep ; and a part of it did so, though some of it grew mouldy and then decayed when the wet time actually came. " But we contrived after a time to prepare a sort of salt. There was a large flat piece of rock, as 44 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. close grained as a piece of flint almost, which lay quite above the ordinary reach of the sea waves. This was rather hollow in its upper face, and the sort of large saucer or shallow basin thus formed would hold nearly a pailful of water. It was filled by the storm which wrecked us ; but three days afterwards the boy noticed that it was almost empty, and that not only was the water still left intensely briny and very bitter, but that salt was really formed in a thin crust, reaching all round, away from the edge of the water, and this salt was not so very bitter as to be unusable. We acted on this hint you may be sure, and in about four or five weeks' time, by finding other stones which would hold some a pint, some five or six times as much, we managed to have a stock of salt, such as it was, of several pounds weight, and to us worth more than a thousand times its weight in gold. " Just as we had got our stock of salt laid in, we began to have some new calls made upon us for its use. I have already said we looked upon those goats with very wishful eyes ; and the boy, who had read 'Robinson Crusoe' over, like many another boy, half-a-dozen times, was often wishing to catch some of the kids, so as to have a flock of tame ones. Well, we tried all sorts of plans. We made snares. We did catch one that way, but it got away again before we could get up to secure it ; and it seemed WIDE-AWAKE GOATS. 45 to be with them just as silly folks say it is with rats, if one gets trapped and afterwards escapes namely, that he goes and tells all his fellow-rats. Certainly no goat, as far as we could see, ever came near our snares again. Then we dug pitfalls for them with wooden spades. Didn't our arms ache and our hands get sore before we could, with such tools only, completely excavate a hole that was big enough ! And when it was made, the goats would not go in, however cunningly we thought we had covered it. And then, besides, the mischievous monkeys used to watch our proceedings, and as soon as our backs were turned, down they came from their posts of observation, and just undid what it had cost us so much toil, and pains, and care to do. So pitfalls would not answer. Then we tried another plan. We observed the paths they made, and then suspended a heavyish piece of wood a good height above the ground by a cord, which we brought down and secured to a sort of trigger, in such a way, that as they passed along their track, they would chest the cord, and liberate it by the pressure, and so let the wood fall right upon them. We did get one this way; but the others seemed to take a hint from his fate. They never frequented that track again as long as we remained on the island ; and when we tried the same plan in one or two other places, though we once or twice found the 46 PL AY- HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. trap sprung, we never caught another ; and it was no use, we found, setting one a second time that had already fallen once. " At last a bright thought entered my head one day as I was out by myself, gathering those nuts I spoke about a little while since, and in that part of the island most frequented by the goats. I saw about twelve of them, young and old together, in a place from which, if they were suddenly and sufficiently alarmed, and in the right quarter, they would probably make their escape by one particular way only. I said to myself, ' If I could make a sufficient pit-trap in the line of their probable retreat in the supposed case of alarm, there would be no difficulty in getting three or four at a time/ I determined to try. And did I not work hard for two or three days in getting a pair of pits dug and properly prepared? I had then to watch from time to time to see them in the right place. The spyglass and the flagstaff helped me in this famously, unsus- pected alike by the goats and my companions. Five days after the trap was completed, I saw my time was come. I counted seven goats going down deliberately one by one, along the mountain paths to the sheltered hollow where I wanted them to be. I called the boy, and begged Mr. Benson to come too, only telling them in general words what I wanted them to do. We went very quietly by GRAND SUCCESS. 47 the path I had marked out for myself, and reached the place I wanted to be at undiscovered. We then parted, and at my whistle you know how?" Both boys nodded, and Jack put his fingers in his ears, as if expecting it the next moment, and not anticipating pleasure from it in the confined room they were in. The gamekeeper resumed : " Well, at my whistle, we all three commenced making the most terrible hullabaloo we could manage, showing ourselves, and running like mad folks. The scheme answered. Three of the goats made off in different directions, but the other four two old ones and two kids went the very way I wanted them, and in a trice they were all caught in the two pits the two kids in one, and the old ones in the other. Our exultation was rather damped by seeing the old ' Billy' a moment after leap out again, and go rattling down the track as if he had a thousand wolves after him. The other old goat had broken both her fore-legs, and we killed her without trouble. The kids we took out alive, and got them safe home with some little trouble. " Well, we had a jolly broil of goat's meat that day, and what we could not .eal fresh we salted in what we called our brine tub another hollow stone in a cavern near to our settled habitation, 48 PLAY-HOUKS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. that I told you of. The kids we resolved to keep alive. They were rather better than half-grown, and sulked at first ; however, by the time they had been twenty-four hours in captivity, hunger pre- vailed, and they began to eat what we laid before them. We therefore set about making an enclosure for them, hobbling them meanwhile, and setting the boy to watch them. Our enclosure was completed in the course of ten days, and our captives, now so tame as willingly to take food from our hands, were turned into it. Before we had had them four months, we saw that we should certainly have a flock of tame goats in due time. These were not the last goats we caught by my new plan. Indeed, we caught as many as ten in that way before the rainy time set in, and so were well provided with salt provisions. However, after all, when it did come, it did not prove to be so bad as we expected, and we managed to win through it without trouble or sickness. "Our greatest apprehension was about our beacon. But we took care to keep a good stock of dry wood in one of our caverns ; and we thatched the pile of wood which we had on what we called our beacon hill, in hopes that after all it might be kept dry enough to burn." But we must postpone the rest of Robert Banks' narrative to another chapter. CHAPTEE III. The Gamekeeper's Narrative continued Bird-catching Terrible Storm, and Wreck of another Ship Land Tortoises Large Lizard Bow and Arrows Battle with a Seal A Ducking Explorations Tameness of Birds "A Sail" Taken off the Island In England again. " WHEN the rainy season had passed/' continued the gamekeeper, " we resumed our active life. I can't say we had ever felt very unhappy, or anything like despairing, so far ; but perhaps it was because we had found so much to do. There seemed to be never a day, till the wet came, but what our hands were full from morning to night j and we all went to bed as tired as men could be. And during our partial confinement we had found plenty of occupation in working up some of the longer goat's hair. I dare say you know, Master Robert, how to twist horsehair fishing-lines with three little wooden twisters and quill caps to them?" " Aye, very well, Robert. I have twisted some few yards before now." 50 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS, " Well, sir, and did it well, I know. But I fancy you would not come up to me ; at least, as I could do it before those days were over. I set myself to make some snares for birds, which I thought I could manage so as to lay hold of some of them; and I worked on and on, until at last I got to do them as tight and smooth as heart could wish. We also worked hard to get a net made. We hadn't twine enough to do it with at the best of times, so we set to work, all hands, at unravelling some of our sailcloth (which was good and new), and then twisting the yarns three together, until we had got a real good stock of strong string, which answered our purpose famously. And then we went to work in earnest on a net. We made a sort of seine net, Mr. Benson called it; not too big, you may be sure. But no matter about its name ; it did for what we wanted, and well ; and many a good haul of fish we got with it. "All this time, I should have said, we kept a good look-out from our signal-post. Never a day passed that one or other of us did not spend a few minutes almost every hour in looking out, regu- larly sweeping the ocean with our glass. But we never saw a sail; nor even made ourselves fancy that we saw one. One night during the worst part of the bad weather there certainly was a terrible storm the only real storm there had been THE TEMPEST. 51 since the time we reached the shore. It had been thick all day, with violent squalls at times ; and there was a sort of restless, unceasing moan about the sea, with a long, heavy swell, which got heavier as the night drew on, that made us certain dirty weather was coming. Hundreds and thou- sands of sea-birds came flying in in companies all the afternoon. Generally, they did not come much to our island, but to another about two miles to the east a great part of which, we could see, lay almost awash : the rest seemed to be barren rock. We couldn't see a green leaf or blade about it, even when the sun shone fairest on it, and though our glass was a real good one. " The weather was too thick to make anything out at any distance, and if there had been a fleet within a mile, I don't think we could have seen one of them. Well, about sunset the storm came on; thunder and lightning, and rain and wind; sea, and air, and sky seemed all mixed up, and with fierce darts of fire shooting all through it. Mean- while we could scarce hear the thunder for the roar of the waves and the howling of the tempest. Then, the next moment, the thunder rattled, and rolled, and crashed, till we not only could hear nothing else, but till it seemed as if all the infernal tumult of the storm was ' still silence' when it ceased. I felt that night aye, more a hundred 52 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. times than ever before in my life what " God's might" and " the power of His wrath" meant. ' ' He maketh the clouds His chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind, who maketh His angels spirits, His ministers a naming fire. At Thy re- buke they fled, at the voice of Thy thunder they hasted away." These words, and others like them, came into my mind without my thought, and I said to myself, ' If the Almighty used these spirits and winds of His, and these flaming fires and this unspeakable voice of His in wrath against any, who could abide it, indeed ?' fl About three hours after nightfall there was a lull. The waves still broke with a fearful noise, and the breakers outside roared incessantly ; but the continuous, hollow, howling boom of the wind was almost gone. Mr. Benson had just said we literally could not hear what each other said before, except by speaking in a sort of whisper ' Thank God, Banks though I never thought before to utter such a thanksgiving there are so few ships in these seas : no ship could live in such a storm as this/ The words were scarcely out of his mouth before we heard a gun. It was plain, as you now hear me speak ; all three of us heard it and started up, and the lightning, which kept on flashing still, in long white flashes, lighted up our startled faces and made them, in their eager awe-stricken look, FIRING THE BEACON. 53 more awful to see than they had been all these last two or three hours, and I never wish to see such faces again, I am sure. They didn't look human ; more like the features of a corpse of a man who had been scalded to death of soft, shining, livid white stricken into ghastly life again by a miracle, than anything else, by the light of that lightning. " The impulse upon us all, after the first moment of startled surprise, was to rush to our outlook and fire the beacon if that should prove possible. I don't think any of the three knew exactly how he got there ; I know I was bruised and bleeding, and so was the boy, but I had no recollection of having fallen, or otherwise hurting myself. The beacon was wonderfully dry, considering all, and lit with- out difficulty, and in ten minutes there was a large column of flame, momentarily burning fiercer and brighter. Three guns fired in rapid succession led us to think our fire was seen ; for we could see, though very faintly, the flashes preceding the re- ports. But we could entertain little hope of ulti- mate safety for the crew, unless the storm con- tinued not only to lull, but to abate ; and that, Mr. Benson said, was what he least looked for. He expected it would break forth again, even with more fearful violence than before. And his antici- pation was only too fully verified. Our beacon fire was burning well and brightly, when, all in a 54 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. moment, the flame was, as it were, bent down flat by a sudden gust which lasted only a short time. But we heard a confused roar, different from that of the waves, approaching, partly as if it were over- head. I cannot tell you how our senses all our faculties seemed to be oppressed. I have often seen the animals in the fields strangely uncom- fortable and restless before the coming of a heavy storm ; Fm sure I felt something like that myself, standing near that fire of ours. Mr. Benson said, 1 It's coming, Banks ; we shall have to look out for ourselves;' and the moment after he had spoken we saw another blaze breaking out, just where we had seen the flashes. The hapless ship was on fire ! We were not permitted to look on long. In much less time than it takes me to tell you, I was dashed to the ground ; Mr. Benson and the boy fared no better. Our fire was blown, sparks and flaming brands, in twenty different directions, and there was one deafening roar of wind smothering all other sounds, for (I should think) fifteen or twenty minutes, I clung instinctively to the ground, grinding my nails to the quick as I found after, and it was not till that fearful blast was over that I dared lift my head from the ground. Then I called out loud. Mr. Benson answered ; he was not three yards from me, but I could not hear a word he said. In a few minutes the wind fell to a steady A EIGHT OF STORM. 55 but fierce gale. Then we made .out that we were neither of us hurt; but where was the boy? Groping about for him where we had seen him last, we presently found his insensible body. He had been struck down with such violence that he was stunned. Burdened with him we toiled heavily on in the effort to regain our shelter, and it was with the most extreme thankfulness that we found ourselves once more within our cave, which now seemed to possess attractions we had never dreamed of looking for in it before. We soon succeeded in bringing the boy to his senses, and we made him take a little of the spirits, which, I should say, none of us touched on any ordinary occasion, and then we put him to bed. Me, Benson and I were too much excited to sleep. Again and again we tried to get out ; again and again we were driven back by the storm, and by the belief that was forced on us that there could be no deliverance for the poor shipwrecked man- ners of that ill-fated vessel. As soon as daylight appeared we forced our way out in spite of every difficulty. But it was vain, and worse. Spray and driving rain made everything invisible at a hun- dred yards' distance, and again, most unwillingly, we sought the shelter of our cave. About mid- day the gale abated ; the murky clouds grew less black, and wore less of the show of pressing down 56 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. upon the earth. In a marvellously short time the sun shot out a stray beam or two, and before long we found ourselves able to look out over the reef. Not a vestige of anything there except boiling, seething billows and breakers. The sea on the coast was still terrific. However, we went along the beach as near the cresting, toppling waves as we dared, but never saw anything except some shattered pieces of ship timbers, and the body of one drowned man, mutilated and crushed in an awful way. This we buried. We kept up our watch along the beach all the afternoon. Shat- tered bits of wreck we met with abundantly, and towards evening, when the waves were much less violent and we were able to penetrate to some little distance towards the eastern end of our island, below the rocks, we came upon the only living thing which the sea seemed to have spared; and that was a black Newfoundland dog. He was watching the body of a poor little boy who had been tied to a spar with a shawl of great value. The child had been a handsome little fellow, and no doubt the dog had belonged to his father. The name on his collar was Captain Maclntyre, N.B.I. He whined pitifully as we approached him, and tried all the means in his power to be- seech us to help his poor little charge. Mr. Ben- son carefully untied the shawl and lifted the pool THE WRECK. 57 lifeless body, the dog following him closely, but without any apparent jealousy. We had scarcely light enough to dig a grave and secure it properly with stones over it ; but it was done for all that. And as we came away the dog gave one long pitiful howl, and then followed us to the cave. We gave him some food, which he needed bad enough; and a very faithful, and attached, and useful fellow he became to us. " Farther searchings next morning added little to what we had already gained, either in informa- tion or articles washed ashore from the wreck. We made out, to be sure, that the ship had been Eng- lish, and we found a leathern portmanteau of wear- ing apparel marked A. P. Elton. Also a great part of one of the lower masts, with a good deal of its rigging still attached, was washed ashore, and was carefully stored by us as likely to be ser- viceable at some future time. But the most useful thing to us was a shattered remnant of one of the ship's boats, for it enabled us to repair our own very effectually. "We now had it in our power to cross over, without fear or difficulty, to Bird Island, as we had got to call that low island to the east of ours. A few weeks only after the storm the breeding season seemed to begin, and there were myriads of eggs to be had for the lifting ; and we also got 58 PLAY- HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. a good many small turtle. My snares, too, were made useful. I was able to get half a score birds with very little trouble almost whenever we wanted them. I had several plans to work upon ; one was to ob- serve the ledges where the birds rested or sunned themselves, and then arrange my snares there ; another, for the land birds, was very much the same as I have seen boys in England adopt for catching small birds in any of their favourite haunts namely, covering a space of ground very closely with snares, in the hope that one here and one there would walk in, or accidentally entangle its head and neck. And again, another and very successful one was dependent on our new ally Sailor's docility and cleverness. Many of the birds about the island were apparently rendered exceed- ingly curious by the sight of the dog, and they would often follow him a very considerable dis- tance. Observing this, and knowing a little about the way of working a decoy in England", I con- trived to teach him to show and hide himself alter- nately, in such a way as to lead them into one or other of a sort of passages I worked out among the trees, and which I took care to have well gar- nished with my goafs-hair springes. One sort of parrots especially I used to take in this way, and very good to eat they were. " Sailor was very useful to us also in capturing GOATS AND TORTOISES. 59 a goat when we wanted one. I have seen many a clever sheep-dog, especially about the moors, who seemed, almost without word or sign from their masters, to know intuitively what to do in the way of collecting or driving sheep in any given direc- tion ; but I never saw one cleverer or more intelli- gent than our dog speedily grew to be in driving the goats any way I wanted them. Of course, they often beat him by the help of their agility and rock-loving and climbing habits ; but then I tried to obviate this as much as I could by only sending him when he had a fair chance; and a great net I made, something on the principle of a rabbit-net, helped us in the capture of goats much more than the pitfalls did. "One part of our island abounded with land tortoises, some of which grew to large size. We did not like them very much, and seldom caught one except we were without other food. Sailor observed us killing one one day, and always after that, on coming upon one, regularly brought it to bay until he ascertained our pleasure. It was very amusing to watch him on such an occasion. He dashed with a fierce bark at the head of the creature. Alarmed at the assault, it drew its head and legs in with a loud hiss, and dropped down as if struck dead ; and then Sailor would lie down in front of it, quite quiet till the animal began to 60 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. move again. No sooner, however, did its head begin to appear, than Sailor repeated his rush and his loud hark, and with the same results as before. If I held my arm right up, as I do to a pointer that ought to be ' backing/ he would keep the tortoise stationary till I could go to his help. If I waved my arm, as when I am hunting my pointers and want to make them take a new traverse, he would immediately leave the reptile, fully compre- hending that we did not want it. " There was also another creature inhabiting some parts of our island that was eatable a sort of lizard it was. Mr. Benson said he did not think it was an iguana, though its flesh when cooked was quite white, and good enough for a hungry man ; none of us fancied it, though indeed, we never knew what want of good pro- visions, much more what hunger, was. These animals were of considerable size, and a sort of brown-red, above and dirty orange below, and frightfully ugly. Some of them must have weighed fourteen or fifteen pounds. Sailor never liked the look of them ; he was as shy about them as Pepper of the ferret, though he would sometimes give a short bark once or twice if he fell in with two or three of them that we were not near enough to notice. " The boy had made himself a bow and arrows BOW AND ARROWS MANUFACTURED. 61 a few weeks after we came ashore, and he had got to shoot so capitally by practice that he could often succeed in getting two or three couple of parrots or doves (great lots of both of which there were about) in the course of an hour or so. He had some trouble in getting a good bow ; but we succeeded, after the wreck, in manufacturing a famous one. We picked up, as I said, several shattered pieces of the woodwork of the ship and of one of her boats, and among the rest was a fragment of ash, about two fingers broad by one thick, and seven or eight feet long. To this he affixed, by means of glue prepared from fish-bones and a grand stew we had under Mr. Benson's in- struction before we got it to the proper consistence a thinnish piece of very tough wood we found grow- ing on the island, and then, after the glue was well dried and hardened, the boy and I set to at shaping and polishing the made-up piece into a bow. "He made the arrows himself, using a sort of reed or dwarf-growing bamboo for the purpose; pointing some of them with sharp rays or spikes, got from one kind of fish we occasionally took, and others with heads ground out of iron nails, into shape and sharpness against a stone. The glue was useful again in this operation, as well as in feathering the shafts ; and beautifully indeed did our bowman succeed at last in finishing them. He 62 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. grew to be so expert in the end, that he could hit a small dove almost certainly at twenty-five to thirty yards; and they generally would let him come a good deal nearer than that. " We did not make all our discoveries as to the natural productions of the island all at once, by any means. Some parts were very nearly inac- cessible from our side, and the mountainous parts were very difficult to traverse. Some of the brush- wood, too, was so thick, it was almost impossible to make our way through it ; and then there was a scarcity of water, except in some parts. Indeed, we used to say, that if we had been cast on the other side of the island, we might have perished with thirst before we found water ; unless, indeed, we had been able to sustain life by drinking, instead of water, the blood of the land tortoises which abounded in that quarter. "You will rather feel inclined to laugh when I tell you the boy had to carry a stout cudgel with him when he went a-shooting. But there were a great many large birds of the hawk kind, which used actually to fight him for the possession of the birds he shot. They did not seem to kill anything for themselves, but only ate what they found dead, carrion of any sort. Sometimes five or six of them together would pounce down on a parrot or dove that had fallen, if he did not get it imme- ATTACK ON A SEAL. 63 diately ; and they would not give way a bit, till he knocked one or two of them over with his cudgel. " We also found another creature on the west coast of the island which was useful to us ; and that was a sort of seal, with a good deal of strong fur on it. We had many a battle, and one or two really dangerous tussles, before we could succeed in capturing one. One day we determined to get one, if possible ; and all three of us went round in the boat, taking with us water and provisions for three days. It was a calm week that is, one of those periods of a few days, sometimes five, some- times ten during which there was almost no surf at all. We were in desperate need of something tough to make shoes or sandals of, and we had thought of these seals, if only we could get one of their hides. I had as my old friend Robert Moore would say e fettled up ' a spear out of part of the ironwork of the broken boat and a bit of a mast; and a very deadly weapon it looked, I must say, with its blade of sharp iron hardened, as well as I could harden it, by heating and plunging it into cold sea water. Well, we saw four or five seals soon after we got in sight of their haunts. One big old chap we thought we could circumvent. And we did contrive to cut him off from the sea. However, he charged us. I was wise enough to stand still, and receive his charge with levelled 64 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. spear : it took him just in the left shoulder. He didn't seem to care for it a bit, but gave a terrible twist, which took the shaft out of my hand in a moment. The next instant he floored me like a ninepin; and the only other thing I saw before he reached the water was that he nipped the spear shaft in two with his teeth, much as if it had been a carrot. Thinks I to myself, 'Well, Fll never be such a blessed fool as to face a big seal again with only a spear to stop him. If I do, I'm a Dutchman/ " Well, we had made such a precious row, that all the other seals within half a mile had bundled off to the sea ; so I set to work to repair damages as well as I could. I got another shaft fitted to my spear-head, which I had had a deal of trouble in straightening between a couple of stones. The shaft was but a clumsy, rough-looking affair, but it was strong and well-fitted. In about an hour or so, the seals began to reappear ; we selected one for our next attack, which we were to try and stalk. His position on a ledge of rock overhanging the sea, but below which, with caution, we could suc- ceed in getting without risk of discovery, suggested the idea. Mr. Benson and I got to within a yard and a half of him undiscovered. His head was seawards, but he could not see us even when we could see the greater part of his huge bulk and A COLD-BATH AMONG THE SHARKS. 65 he was as big as a ' Scotch cow' for his sight in our direction was intercepted by a loose piece of rock. Losing no time,, for I knew how acute his sense of smell was, I plunged the spear into him just behind his left flapper, and held on like a Snapper Turtle. He was mortally wounded, as the event showed ; but his strength was such that he raised me from the ledge I was standing on when I stabbed him, and whirled me into the water with himself. I didn't like my bath nor my bathing companion, for that matter well enough to loiter in it, and so I gripped Mr. Benson's hand, which was stretched down to me as I came up again, and was glad enough to scramble up the rocks with that help : not a moment too soon, either, for there were four or five sharks about the place within half a minute, attracted, no doubt, by the splashing and turmoil in the water. I shuddered at the escape I had had of being ' chawed up' in sober earnest; and I felt so sick at heart, I was half inclined to leave the place; but the boy stopped me by crying out ( Hooray ! there's the beastie, as deid's a door- stane.' Dead enough he was, no doubt ; and luckily for us, the spear still stuck in him, and the end of the shaft nearly reached to the surface of the water. But I knew we could not get him out by hauling on that, even if we could get hold of it safely, which didn't seem to promise to be an easy F 66 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. task, with all those hungry monsters swimming about. After a bit of consultation between Mi- Benson and me, the boy put in his oar : " ' Ye suld mak' a rinning knot in a bit strang line, and slip it cannily ower the beastie's hinder end/ said he. " ' Aye, but how, my man ?' was Mr. Benson's query. " ' Ye mought dee it, sir, wi' the canting pole an' a lang wand.' "The word f canting-pole' rather puzzled Mr. Benson and me too for a moment, but then I recol- lected I had heard Geordie call the makeshift boat- hook we had rigged up a ' canting-pole,' when I was punting the boat with it one day, and I saw his plan immediately. So I thought we would go away for a bit, and leave the place quiet while we were making our preparations, and most likely the sharks would withdraw too. Thus we should very likely be able to noose our prey before we again attracted their attention; and therefore this plan would be better than rowing the boat to the place where the seal lay. Mr. Benson agreed, and the lad started off to get a good stiff but light bamboo, many of which lay about the beach, drifted from the other island. " The plan answered beautifully. Not a shark was to be seen on our return, and we kept ourselves EXPLORATIONS. 67 quiet enough till we had got the noose over the creature's f stern/ which I succeeded in doing- at the second try ; and then we commenced hauling in with as jolly a ( heave oh !' as two men's voices and a lad's treble could manage. " Well, we got our seal safe, and got enough of its skin to stock us well with shoe-leather; enough to last many months more than we hoped to have occasion for it. " From this part of the island we succeeded in penetrating the higher parts of the valley, through which the stream near our habitation flowed on its way to the sea. We had already explored the lower part of its course, and found it fell over a tremendous precipice, forming a remarkable cas- cade in its fall, about three miles from the coast. This precipice presented a great bar to any further progress in that direction ; but now, having time and provisions with us, we ' turned its flank/ as Mr. Benson said; and after a climb of great diffi- culty, costing us weary limbs and many a fall and bruise, we stood at last upon the highest emi- nence and looked down into a wonderfully beau- tiful, though narrow valley. Here we saw a few pigs as well as a good many goats, and, what was more to the purpose still, found plenty of wild bana- nas. One thing did strike us as strange, you may be sure, and that was the tameness of the birds. 68 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. There were great numbers of doves, and a great many finches of two or three different sorts, and plenty of mocking thrushes ; and really, if you'll believe me, they would hardly take the trouble to get out of the way. We could have got any number by knocking them down as they flew by us, and we could all but catch them by the legs as they passed; nay, one actually came and sat on our drinking vessel as it stood full by the side of a spring where we were getting our dinner. One would have thought they had never seen man before, or, at least, had never experienced his cruel power and disposition to slay and destroy. Said Mr. Benson to me, after watching the strange scene a bit, 'Well, Banks, our English lads wouldn't need the salt-box here much/ "On our return to the boat we descended by another way, but it was not until late in the after- noon of the next day that we reached the part at which we had landed. When we were within half a mile of it we saw nearly twenty seals, of two different sorts, apparently basking. Says the lad, ' I mind I once heared how to kill a sealgh. Wad ye gang and try, Maister Banks ?' " I asked him, < How ?' "He replied that, if he remembered right, a stroke on the nose, with a stick or other weapon, would be sufficient so to disable the seal that its RECKONINGS. 69 slaughter became easy. We resolved to try, and selecting one for the purpose which offered us an easy approach, the blow on the nose was applied. However, it was either not done properly, or the notion was a wrong one ; for our amphibious friend waddled and rolled off with laughable fright and speed to the water, rolling himself in bodily in his efforts to escape. We had our laugh, and that was all. " Another discovery we made, which we thought would be useful ; and that was the existence of considerable quantities of salt hereabouts. We thought we would stop where we were for the night, and soon found all the shelter we required. Before we went to sleep we were reckoning up as we had done many times before how long we had been on the island. Mr. Benson made it thirteen months, a week, and three days ; but we couldn't quite agree about the day of the week. He thought it was Friday ; I, that it was Thurs- day; but we had always gone according to hiss reckoning in keeping our Sunday, and the boy's calculation depended on this only. f It wad be the Sabbath the day after the morn/ he said. "Well, the morn came, and we got our break- fast and rowed away home. We laughed as we spoke the word ( home/ and wondered how long it would yet be our home. Mr. Benson always 70 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. seemed confident of speedy rescue. He said the island must be known, and its resources for ships short of provisions ; and he added that he was sure, from many things, that Europeans had landed on it though not very lately, perhaps and for just that purpose. But still, I think, he was as much surprised and as joyfully so as we were, when, on rounding the last headland before reaching our beach, we saw a large ship standing off and on, about a mile and a half from the shore. You may be sure we pulled with a will, and were not long in getting up to our flagstaff and running up our signal. But as soon as we had time to look out, we saw that a boat had not only already put off from the ship, but was already within half a mile of our landing-place. Well, to make my story short, the ship proved to be the ' Vancouver/ Captain Headley, which had put in for water and fresh provision. In three days' time as much was procured as was wanted, and we were again afloat and bound for Valparaiso. We reached that port safely, and were lucky enough to fall in with a ship just bound for Liverpool, round Cape Horn, and after a prosperous voyage we reached Old England safe and sound ; and there's the end of my ' yarn/ young gentlemen. And it seems to be ' fairing up' now, and I think we had better make play while we can without fear of a wet jacket/' BACK TO THE SCHOOL. 71 Bob and his cousin thought so too, and thanking the gamekeeper for a narrative which had proved so interesting to them both, that they had quite forgot to think about the state of the weather equally with the lapse of time, they started off for the school, " putting right foot foremost," as Bob expressed it, and reaching the school gate quite dry, in good time, and thoroughly well warmed. CHAPTER IV. Tackle-talk Tying on a Hook Losing a big 'mi Twisting a horsehair line 'by hand' Knotting a Fly -link Materials for Fly -making Making a "Hackle" Preparing wings Dubbing a body The "skew- winged Alderman" Unfait accompli. " BOB, when are you going up to Robert Banks to get that lesson in fly- making?" inquired Jack, a few days after the rabbit-netting expedition at Wrilton Park. " Well, old fellow, I think we'll go the first opportunity. Only we must let Banks know," re- plied Bob. Means were found of communicating with the gamekeeper, and a day was fixed for going to his lodge, and receiving the much-coveted instruction in the art just mentioned. The two lads were very busy a day or two before the appointed time, looking over their tackle and making other preparations for the approaching fishing season. Many were the repairs found necessary in the various parts of their equipment FISHING-TACKLE REPAIRS. 73 (saving only the fly-rods, fly-lines, and their imme- diate appurtenances) but especially so in their bottom or bait-fishing- tackle. In the eagerness with which they had followed up their new art of fly-fishing last season, all else among their fishing belongings had rather been suffered to fall into neglect, and the consequences now had to be made good. Hooks were found to have rusted, and the silk of their whipping was decayed in consequence, so that not a few came off when tested with only a little tug. Lines, too, were frayed, and some of the hair links belonging to the setting-lines wanted replacing. There was, in short, a great deal to do. Jack was extremely anxious to be employed; and thought, that besides setting everything straight sorting hooks, coiling lines, disentangling ' snarls/ and the like he might manage to whip on a few of the hooks that were missing, or had failed under Bob's testing forefinger and thumb. So he sorted out the proper hooks, and waxed the silk which, however, he succeeded in doing only rather lamely, until Bob gave him " a wrinkle." " See here," cried the latter. " Be content to wax about eight or ten inches at the end first. See, it slips over as easily as can be. If you try to wax a longer length, it sticks fast in the middle thus :'" and certainly the two-foot length that 74 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. Bob tried to pass over the lump of "cobbler's wax" did stick fast; and some splintering of the sticky pieces of wax, and some trouble ensued, before he could succeed in. getting the silk free again. " What's the reason of that, Bob?" asked Jack. " I've seen the shoemakers wax their twine in bits as long as they can reach. Why can't we do the same with the silk ?" " Why, I suppose it is because their material is sufficiently strong to let them pull it so hard, and make it go so quick over the wax as to keep up heat enough to make the wax a little soft ; and I know our silk isn't. So my plan is, to wax a short bit at the end and then take that end between my teeth, and hold the other end in my hand, so as to stretch the whole pretty tight, and then pass the wax lightly and quickly along the unwaxed part, till it has got enough ; and I finish off the end I held in my teeth last, just as I did the other end." Jack soon managed to wax a sufficient piece of silk thus, though not without one fracture and two or three stickings fast ; and then proceeded to tie on a hook, after Bob had tied one on first to show him. Jack's work looked very neat indeed, and he showed it to Bob in expectation of a small f pat on PARTING BY MUTUAL CONSENT. 75 the back/ Bob just looked at it, and took it into his paw, drily asking, " Will it hold, Jack ?" Jack looked at him, with his mouth a little open, not quite comprehending his cousin's mean- ing. Of course, the hook would hold if it got into a fish's mouth, he thought, and the gut it was tied to was round and strong and sound ; what was the doubt, then ? So he replied, " Yes, Bob ; why shouldn't it ?" " Well, we'll see. Here, lay hold of the hook. Nay, you lay hold of the gut, and I'll have the hook ; and then, you pull as you think a good old chub would." Jack did as he was bid, and, to his considerable disgust, at the first tug and he couldn't persuade himself it was such a jerk as a fair-sized, frightened fish would have given the gut and the hook that he had united so neatly, appeared to separate by mutual consent, so very easily did they part com- pany. " Uncommon neat work, Jack ; but how about the holding, old fellow ?" Then, observing Jack's look of discomfiture, he added, " Never mind, old chap; better the hook came off in my hand, than in a jolly big fish's mouth. I say, though, wouldn't you have thought it was a whopper, if it had been a fish had got it off ! I know I did, one day, when I lost a hook I'd tied on that way." 76 PL AY- HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. " Why, what was wrong with the tying, Bob ? And where was it you lost your big 'un ? Tell us, Bob, there's a good fellow/' f an inch (or nearly so) deep. This, too, clone, he took a piece of light brown silk and three or four horsehairs of somewhat the same shade, and pass- TWISTING A LINE BY HAND. 81 ing the cap over the ends of the hairs and silk together, inserted the wooden peg or cylinder. The other two ' twisters/ as he called them, were already similarly charged. Knotting the ends of all three mixtures of hair and silk together, he secured the knot to a strong pin, adjusted the twisters so as to be all equally distant from the knot, and taking one of them between the fore- finger and thumb of the right hand, while he held the others in his left, he began to twist it rapidly from left to right, till the hair and silk it was charged with was evenly, but not too lightly, twisted together. Then he passed it over the other two strands into his left hand, and repeated the process with the second twister ; this, too, in its turn being passed quite over the other two into the left hand, and so with the third. Then Jack saw that, although only three plies of the new link had apparently been made by his cousin, there appeared to be three times as many actually there. Bob explained to him that that was the spon- taneous action of the separately twisted strands attempting to untwist themselves (by reason of the elasticity of the material), and in the effort actually twisting up a bit of the intended line. Once started, Bob made rapid progress, twisting his wooden implements with great dexterity, lengthening each strand, as required, by a gentle G 82 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. pull., so as to let a little more of the silk and hair slip out, until at last he had a foot done. Then Jack saw him stop, loosen one of the caps, look out and insert a hair under, then tighten it and begin to twist again. The same process was repeated again and again in the course of the next five minutes ; and Jack observed that each time it was done there was a hair-end, additional to that of the one newly inserted, sticking out of the line, pointing down as the other pointed up, and he had no difficulty in understanding how a perfectly smooth and continuous line of any length might be made this way smooth, that is, when all those horsehair ends should have been very neatly and closely snipped off. Bob, having thus commenced the manufacture of a fishing line for his cousin's edification, soon knocked off, secured the ends of his fabric, and laid it aside for continuation some other day. Then, taking another set of twisters out of his box, and a quantity of long and strong horsehair of the same hazel or light brown tinge as the last, he fitted the little instruments with half-a-dozen hairs each, knotted them as before, and set Jack to work twisting. Jack was slow in his manipulations, but observant and careful ; and, with a hint or two from Bob as to keeping each strand evenly twisted and not harder than its fellows, he soon began to produce what would do A TRUSTY KNOT. 83 duty very respectably as a foot-link for day set- lines. He had just to twist on to the full length of the horsehair, and the link would be long enough, so that there was no trouble or interrup- tion about replacing the hairs as they were worked out. When failures of that sort commenced, Bob took the whole from his companion's hands, and knotted all securely together at the new end also. Bob's own employment meanwhile was in making ' casting-lines/ or, as they are otherwise called, 'gut links' or ' fly-links/ for himself and Jack. They had, partly by gift and partly by purchase during the holidays, become possessed of two entire coils of silkworm gut, besides the tangled remains of two or three others. Some of it was very fine and other much coarser. Bob sorted it all very carefully, and then knotted some eight or ten pieces together in such a way that it tapered from one end to the other. The knot he used was one he called ' Sir Cuthbert's/ for Sir Cuthbert had shown him how to make it one day, when that gentleman had found him in all the miseries of a complicated 'break/ " Let's see how you do it, Bob," asked Jack, turning round from his own work, but not loosing his hold of the twisters. " Oh, it's very easy, old fellow ; but isn't it a g-ood knot ? You know how a woman ties a knot 84 PLAY- HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. in a hurry when her string is too short to tie up her parcel with, and she is going to lengthen it with another bit. She just claps the two ends together, and makes a sort of ring with the string, and passes the ends through, and pulling it tight, there's her knot, and a precious bungle it is. Well, I put the ends that are to be tied together too, only not with the two pieces side by side, but just one end overlapping the other end a couple of inches or so ; thus. Then I make my ring just as the cook would, and I bring the short end of piece No. 1 I call that No. 2 which is to be tied to No. 1 and the long part of No. 2, and pass it through the ring once, and then again twice, before I begin to pull tight, and that pulling tight I do very carefully and evenly so; and there's my knot, which only wants pulling quite tight when the gut is wet and soft, and then trimming close, to be the smallest, tightest, truest, safest knot there is. It wants no whipping over the ends, as most of the knots used in making fly-links do at least, get and is complete the very instant the wet gut is drawn/' " But why put the ends through twice, Bob ? Wouldn't once do?" " Try it, my lad. That's the best way." Jack did try it, and made a very neat looking knot indeed, much smaller than Bob's; though THE 'BIG FISH' AGAIN. 85 the latter young gentleman had ' cracked' Sir Cuthbert's knot so much as being small. " Very well, Jack ; now for the ' proof of the pudding' you know. Pull the ends and see whether the knot holds " Jack did so, and a snap ensued, under very little tension, and just at the knot. Jack tried it half a dozen times, satisfying himself completely that the gut was strong enough, but that that peculiar knot weakened it so much that breaking invariably re- sulted just at the knot. Bob then set him to try Sir Cuthbert's knot. This stood every test, to Jack's complete satisfaction, and then each of them returned to his own proper department. When Jack's fingers began to move rather more expertly, he broke out, after a few minutes' silence, with " I say, Bob, did you tell me all about that big fish in the pond that got your hook off? I fancied you had something more to say about it." " Oh ! yes, so I had; not much, though. I kept up such a prate about the big fish I should have caught if my hook had held, that Long Ned said he'd take the net down a day or two after, just to stop my mouth. Well, he did so. We contrived to let off the water so as lay one side of the pool dry, and then netting the other side with our drag- net was easy. Well, we had some jolly fun with 86 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. the eels, and got as muddy as pigs, and at last the word was given to get the drag in. We saw there were a good many fish in, but had not, so far, seen any big ones. ' They'll all keep at the bottom, of course/ said Old Lazy to me, rather pro- vokingly. In went the drag, and it was managed beautifully, and everybody said we'd got every fish there. There were about two pailfuls of minnows, and small roach, and dace, and chub j one jack of six ounces' weight, and a chub of about three quarters of a pound. 'Now, Bob, where's the monster?' cried Ned; and 'Meeaster Robert, I do'ent see the big 'un. Shall us drag the pond agin ?' said the groom, with his ugly mouth open from ear to ear. ' Well, 'tisn't there,' says I, * mine was a much bigger fish than any there. Of that I'm certain/ ' As big as this, was it, Bob ?' asked Uncle James, who had stood by enjoying our proceedings, and who had got a chub in his hand seven or eight inches long, when I spoke. c That, uncle,' said I, rather huffy, f why, I should have pulled such a one as that out directly.' 'What sort of a hook had you on?' he asked. ' A Limerick hook,' says I ; f Ned gave it me, and he had no others with him.' ' Anything like this, Robert?' asked the tiresome man, with his quizzing, slow tongue ; and, just fancy, Jack, there was the identical Limerick hook fast fixed in the leather of FLY-MAKING MATERIALS. 87 the absurd chub's mouth. Didn't everybody laugh? And didn't I hear once or twice about < Bob's big fish V" The toils and talk of the two lads soon after this came to a close, under the pressure of time and the summons of school duties ; and nothing that we care to record occurred again until the day fixed for their expedition to the gamekeeper's lodge. About one o'clock on that day they might have been seen seating themselves at a round wooden- topped table in the keeper's sitting-room, the table not set very near the fire, although the day was both damp and chilly, but very much nearer a window that opened to the south and west. Upon the table were spread, in orderly confusion, bird- skins entire, wings of many other different birds, feathers culled from some particular part of at least an equal number of varieties. The corncrake, dotterel, woodcock, partridge, grouse, starling, thrush, tern, wild duck, peacock, tomtit, heron, pewit, ostrich, turkey, jay, were all repre- sented there ; while pigs lent their ' down/ hares their ears, rabbits their whiskers, squirrels, rats, mice, moles, their fur, cocks their neck feathers or ' hackles,' even the homelier hen some of her plumage ; and silks, and wools, and mohair of all conceivable colours and shades lay together, at one side of the rest of the litter. A coil of gut, an 88 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. assortment of hooks of ten or twelve different sizes and several different shapes, a lump of shoemaker's wax, a pair of very fine-pointed small scissors, a pair of stouter ditto, a penknife, a ditto much smaller and lighter, a pair of small spring pliers or forceps, occupied compartments in a small tea-tray on another side. (t Now, Master Robert, did you ever try to make a fly before?" we hear Banks ask. "No, Robert, never; but I have seen my brother make them." " Then you know the way to set to. work, and you know the different sorts of flies that we make?" "Well, yes, Robert at least, I think so. You tie the hook on much the same as when you're doing a hook for bottom-fishing; only, instead of finishing off, you just take one ply at the bottom of the whipping, and leave a long end, having done the same already at the shank end ; and then you make flies with wings, and flies without wings. These last are the < hackles/ ar'n't they ?" " Well, Master Robert, you know that part of your lesson pretty perfect ; only if you are going to make a winged fly, you want a third end of waxed silk, which has to be whipped in near the end of the shank. But will you please to try to make one?" That I will, Robert. What shall it be ?" HOW TO MAKE THE 'RED HACKLE.' 89 "Why, sir, I think it wouldn't be amiss to begin with the red hackle, using peacock's herl for the body. You may as well use a biggish hook, too, for the first. Won't you try, too, Master Edwards ?" "Thank you, Mr. Banks; I should like." " Well, then, sir, here's a hook, and there's gut, and silk lies beside you, and wax there. You can tie a hook, I dare say, sir ?" " Oh, yes," laughed Jack, " my cousin's seen to that." "But, Master Robert," broke in Banks, amid the preliminary waxings and selectings, " that hook of yours is a small one. It will give you a deal more trouble." " Oh ! but, Banks, I mean to make a fly that shan't be too big to use, and I'll take my work out until I do get a good one. It wont be too much trouble to you, will it ?" " Oh, no, sir ; the trouble's a pleasure for you two young gentlemen." So the hooks were securely tied on, and the ends of waxed silk duly left at either extremity. Then a red cock's hackle was taken, and the fluffy, un- coloured part cleared off on both sides near the quill-end, leaving only the bright red rays. This done, the shank of the feather just clear of the rays was whipped to the shank-end of the hook with 90 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. three turns, and secured with a simple ply or slide- knot, and the spare part of the quill (or feather- shank) neatly snipped off. Three strands were now taken from a peacock's tail-feather, and simi- larly whipped on at the other end of the binding of the hook, and their short spare ends removed. Next, the three pieces of peacock feather were gently stretched along the end of waxed silk, and carefully twisted round and round with it, until an even though thin roll of feather only was left, concealing the silk entirely. This roll was now carefully twined round the binding of the hook, renewing the twist occasionally, to compensate for what was lost in the twining, until the hackle was just reached. There it was secured by a ply of the hackle silk, and the superfluity cut off with the fine-pointed scissors. Next came the crux of the whole. The tiny penknife was taken and laid handy, the hook with the fly-body on its shank taken between the finger and thumb of the left hand, and held there, the tip end of the hackle which stood free, pointing up the gut was moistened between the lips till it presented a point something like a very fine camel's-hair brush when wet, and this point inserted between the spring and the blade-end of thelittleknife, theclosed blade being pressed into the handle by the thumb of the right hand, so as to make an opening to receive the A FLY ACCOMPLISHED. 91 hackle. The hackle-end inserted, the pressure was removed, the hackle safely grasped by the knife, which was left hanging by it. This dodge (as Bob called it) effected, the knife was gently taken in the right hand, and the process of twisting the hackle four or five times round the upper part of the hook-shank and fly-body was commenced, and most carefully carried through, the weight of the knife serving to keep the last turn in its place, notwithstanding the elasticity of the feather, until the fly factor had arranged any disorderly rays of the hackle (if there were any), or was able to resume his hold. In the case of Bob's first fly, the body was rather thick and stumpy, but the hackle went on beautifully, and he proceeded to tie it fast. He did this with a double turn and slide-knot, but clumsily enough. However, Banks said he thought it would hold, and so it was suffered to pass. Jack had imitated each evolution in turn, and with a little manual help from the keeper in twisting the body and securing it and the hackle, had made a smarter fly than Bob's, but bigger by a half at least. These several feats accomplished, the two boys began to talk about making a winged fly, and to debate as to what sort it should be. Bob was for a ' March brown/ and Jack for a ' red fly/ which he said he remembered hearing Sir 92 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. Cuthbert pronounce one of the most useful flies in his book. However, the keeper settled the ques- tion for them by telling them that if they wanted to get to make flies well, he thought he could employ them better than trying to make any other fly at all, at least for the present. " What do you mean, Banks ?" was Bob's im- mediate inquiry. " Why, you see, sir young gentlemen both there are several things that a' n't, just to say, easy, that yet want to be done well, to make a good fly. There's picking out the wings nicely, and making them ready that wants a bit of practice, and judgment too, for that matter. Then, tying them on so that they shall set right and make the fly work well and look well in the water, that's down- right hard ; and I know more than one, clever flymakers in all other things, who can't tie a winged fly to please themselves or anybody else that knows ought about it ; and as to those that one buys and I have seen a vast many dozens not half nor yet a quarter have wings to please me. No, and I can't please myself either always, nor yet very often. Well, then, again, making a body of short fur and getting it on is a precious plague- some piece of business till you get the rule of thumb for it. So, if I might advise you, I should like you each to prepare half a score pairs of WINGED FLIES. 93 wings ; then, twist a dubbing body, twenty times over if you can't get it as it should be without ; and when you can manage that fairly you wont get it done as it ought to be without a deal of practice why, then you might try to tie on the wings." Bob's answer was with a poke of his elbow in Jack's side, and a queer look meant to express dis- taste, though it didn't look overpoweringly real. " I say, Jack, precious slow, eh ?" " Yes," replied he, quite gravely, " very, to an un-thorough old humbug like you. To an indus- trious, rather observant young gentleman like your cousin, it sounds rather sensible." "Oh, does it? Well, then, for once I'll be content not to be a ' hinfant phernommenun/ and will learn to walk before I aspire " meruisse palmam" in the foot-race. That's cheesy talk, Jack, I flatter myself. Come, let's have a go at what I vote we call t nonsense' flies." " That's the way you begin, in verses, at school, isn't it, sir ? And then you get to f copies of verses' and ' prize poems,' don't you, sir ? Well, I hope you'll make a ' prize fly' within a month." " My word, Banks ; but the Doctor's been at you. I thought your plan of learning to make flies had a Noble taste with it." " No, sir ; but I got as far as ( longs and shorts' 94 PLAY-HOURS AND HALT-HOLIDAYS. myself once, and could manage a bit of Virgil and Ovid too. My old uncle, who had been a school- master in Scotland, taught me a good deal in the evenings. I think all the good that's in me, or that ever I did, is mostly owing to what he did for me when I was a boy." But the keeper, though talking thus, had not suffered his hands to be idle. The boys had been observing him as he took a quill-feather from a pheasant's wing, then separated a small portion of the broader web from the rest perhaps one -sixth of an inch wide and then, holding it very firmly between the forefinger and thumb of his right hand, tear it away from the shaft, laying it care- fully down on the table. Another similar portion was then similarly separated, removed, and de- posited. An end of waxed silk was then taken up, a ring turned in the middle of it, and one end put through so as to form a slide -loop. One of the two ends was then laid hold of with the front teeth, and the loop left dangling over his chin. The two severed portions of feather were then carefully lifted and placed back to back, so that the tip ends were coincident, and being held together in that position by the finger and thumb of the left hand, the other ends were passed through the loop, the spare end of the silk grasped by the right finger and thumb, and so the loop A HANDSOME PAIR OF WINGS. 95 being adjusted to its proper place as it was drawn, first gently, and then tight when next the keeper's mouth was at liberty to speak he used it to say, as he clipped off the ragged ends a little below the ligature, "What think you of that for a pair of wings ?" Bob and Jack each seized a feather and hastened to prepare wings in the way Banks had shown them. To their surprise, what seemed so easy when Banks did it was, in reality, not so very easy after all. It wasn't easy to get the selected por- tion of the web to leave the shaft without splitting; and if that was done successfully, still it wasn't easy to put them together in the right position and hold them so, and tie them so that they should remain so, and perfectly even to boot. Many a feather was spoiled before even a moderate degree of success crowned their efforts ; but, at last, Jack succeeded in producing what even the keeper allowed to be a ' handsome pair of wings/ Bob's success came later, but it remained with him when it did come ; he could tie a fair pair at hig will. Then came efforts at the dubbing. It was easy enough to pull the fur from the hare's ear, and even to make the little loose roll of it preparatory to applying the silk. But when it came to twisting the silk the Contrary way to its lay, previous to 96 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS, applying it to the dubbing laid on the palm of the hand, and then re-twisting so that the silk should take up and retain the fur ; this, indeed, seemed a troublesome and a difficult task.* However, the keeper's patience was proof, and so was Bob's, not- withstanding Jack's playful sneer at him an hour or two before; and, at last, after the complete shaving of a pair of hare's ears, a great shout from him, accompanied by a series of uncouth capers in- tended for the ' monkey's hornpipe,' announced that his nineteenth effort was successful. That is to say, he had applied to the shank of his hook and duly fastened off, what he called the body of a fly, and what Jack irreverently likened to the ' pod' of a dropsical brown humble-bee. "Jealousy, Jack, all jealousy," retorted Bob; " make one half as handsome yourself, and then, perhaps, I'll listen to you. I wonder your envious eye didn't think it was a yellow bee. Now, Banks, I'll just put on that neat pair of wings I made last, and wont it be a stunner ?" Bob did apply the wings. True, they did not sit exactly on the back of the fly so-called. Jack, * It is almost impossible to describe this process intelligibly. It is easy to use a great many words in the attempt, but not one reader in twenty, who had never seen the process, would be able to apply the description in practice. Any curious reader, who wishes to know how it is done, had better ask some one who c ole in this 'ere box ! right through and through, Miss !' Such a hunt we had, but we found both of them; one on the fender, the other climbing up the back of the great chair, I spent so many hours in then. Nurse was for des- patching the ' nasty, devouring critters' at once ; but I interceded, and we got a tin box ; and my old friend, Dr. Hazlehurst, who came to see me the next day, told me what they were and how to manage them ; and the end of it all was that they turned into two splendid goat-moths." Bob's commentary on the young lady's narrative was not long in coming, and took a practical form : " Jack," said he, " our little bait-can would be the very thing. Miss Graham, please, where shall we be likely to find some?" Smiling at the compliment so naively paid to the interest of her communications, she replied, " I am sorry to discourage you " " No fear of that, Miss Graham " and then, remembering how abruptly he had interrupted her, he coloured deeply, and began again : " Please, Miss Graham, I didn't mean to be rude." With a pleasant smile she rejoined, " I didn't suspect you of it, Robert. But what 136 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. I was going to say, was this : I am afraid you will not be likely to find these caterpillars at this time of the year. You will be much more likely to fall in with them in three or four months' time. I saw three very fine ones, one day towards the end of last September. I remember the time, for Cuth- bert was out shooting ; and I went with the ponies to take him some lunch ; and I saw them as I was waiting at the gate he had directed me to drive to. But there are other sorts you may find now, or soon. Beat the trees, and watch for what falls. Each kind of tree will give you one or more kinds of caterpillar ; most of them not very large, per- haps ; but still interesting. Then the nettle has two or three fine kinds which feed upon it ; and two of them change to very beautiful butterflies, the peacock, and the smaller tortoise-shell. The caterpillar of the admiral, or red-admiral, too, eats nettle leaves ; and now and then in this neigh- bourhood you may meet with the caterpillar of the purple emperor, which eats oakleaves. Then I have found the caterpillar of the puss-moth rather plentifully all about Draxton half way from here to Sollington, you remember ; where so many poplars are growing and a very, very curious caterpillar that is. Look, here in Westwood is an engraving of the goat-moth and caterpillar ; and here is another of the puss-moth and its queer, VARIETY OF MOTHS. 137 quaint larva. The caterpillars of the egger and drinker moths, too, are common enough. Indeed, you cannot but have noticed those large caterpil- lars one meets with so constantly on the moor in the autumn, with dark velvety articulations uniting the brown hairy segments of the body ; to say nothing of those large hairy caterpillars, mainly black, or black and orange, that everybody knows, and which have half-a-dozen different names, in different parts of the country, that I know ; for instance, plain ' hairy worm,* in Yorkshire; ' miller/ in Herefordshire ; ' devils-ring,' more in the south ; and so on. The death's-head hawk-moth, too, is often met with hereabouts, encouraged, I dare say, by the fields of potatoes you see all round ; and three or four more of the hawk-moths are anything but uncommon, including those named from the privet, the poplar, and the elephant ; while, last summer, I saw no less than seven humming-bird hawk-moths about the rhododendrons in the Wilder- ness one afternoon. So that, if you mean to take up caterpillar hunting and keeping, you will, I am quite sure, find plenty of occupation." Miss Graham paused, for her brother's voice was heard from beneath the open window, enquiring if her ' lecture' were nearly done. She went to the window to ask the meaning of the interruption, and was told that he wanted to see the two boys 138 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. before they went away. He had just had some- thing brought by Watt, the Turley watcher, he thought they would be much pleased to see. Asking him, therefore, where he would be in an hour's time, and receiving his reply, she returned to the two lads, saying, " Now I must show you my ' collections/ y ' " Collections, Miss Graham ? Have you got more than one ?" " Yes, Robert, I have two. One which I formed entirely myself; and one which I only helped to form. The latter is a*good one, for it has almost all the British Lepidoptera in it, and not a few foreign ones. The other is rather a peculiar one, but a very great pet of mine, as you may think, having been my comfort and help in many painful and what might otherwise have been weary hours. See, here it is," taking up a thickish, large-sized quarto volume, which lay on a table near the window at which she had just before spoken to Sir Cuthbert. The two cousins, thinking only of the collection of insects they had seen and admired at the Museum, were looking for trays or glass-covered cases with their butterfly and moth mummies, as Jack called them, not very happily perhaps. But the idea of a book receptacle had never occurred to them, not even in its backgammon-board form ; and so their first impression, on seeing Miss HOW COLLECTIONS ARE MADE. 139 Graham take up the volume, was of surprise, with a slight tinge of incredulity. ' She must be laugh- ing at us/ they half thought. But when she laid it open before them at a page displaying no less than four magnificent ' Purple Emperors/ their first thought was, ' Oh ! she meant she had made paintings of all her butterflies/ and their first words " Oh ! how beautiful ! Did you do all these, Miss Graham?" The lady smiled at their mistake, and said, "Look a little more closely, and you will see they are not e done' by anybody ; or, at least, only in small part." " Please, Miss Graham, are these the very wings that you have pasted on ?" enquired Jack. " No, indeed they are not, though you are not far from the truth. What think you, Robert?" "Indeed, I don't know how they are done, though I am almost sure the bodies are painted." "Well I must tell you how they are ' done/ The perfect insect having been developed, it is killed ; and that's the horrid part of making all collections of living (or, rather, what once were living) creatures : the wings are carefully severed, with a fine and very sharp pair of scissors, close to the body, great care being taken not to rub or injure them in any way, or to remove any of the feathers or longer plumes from the parts near the 140 PLAY-HOURS -AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. body. The severed wings are then laid, in as nearly as possible the form and posture they assume when fully expanded by the living insect, on a piece of fine writing paper carefully moistened with very clear and strong gum water; and another piece, similarly prepared, is then laid over them, and the whole submitted to moderate pressure. The com- pound piece you know what I mean " " Oh ! yes, Miss Graham, the sandwich," cried Bob. "Well, yes, the sandwich," laughed she, "is then suffered to dry, and when dry, is cut out with a sharp pointed knife, very carefully and accurately, in such a way that none of the wing not the minutest point even of one of the serratures is cut off, and no margin whatever of paper left. If this is done quite truly and accurately, the upper layer of paper starts from the lower layer almost of itself, and the membranous substance of the wing may be removed, leaving the plumage all firmly adhering to the paper, the one portion showing the upper, and the other the under side of the wings. The process is then continued by gumming the two pieces, with the upper and under wing surfaces respectively, in true position, on to writing or drawing paper, in such a way as to leave between each pair the proper space for the body, which must be painted in, with plenty of body-colour, as PREPARING THE BUTTERFLY. 141 well and as true to nature as possible, and there you see the result." " Oh ! how beautifully you paint, Miss Graham. I never saw anything so true as that before." " Well, Master Edwards, it amused me to do them well, and so I took both time and pains. I soon got to do it easily not much skill in drawing is required for that. It is almost a mechanical art, after a little practice. Can you draw at all ? or you, Robert ?" " Oh ! yes, Jack draws very nicely, though he has never been taught. You know you do, Jack, so don't say you don't. And I can too, a little ; and we are trying to do a little better still, by drawing for an hour or two on wet days. And Jack has been planning to make a complete set of likenesses what do you think of, Miss Graham ? all the flies that we see about the river ; all the duns, and spinners, and spider-legs, and willow- flies, and stone-flies, and march-browns, and green tails, and every other fishing-fly we can find. I am to draw the outlines, which Jack says I can do better " More like nature," broke in Jack ; " a great deal more like the real fly, Bob : though sometimes one wing isn't just the same shape or size as the other. But you notice so how they rest, or fly, or creep, or whatever it is they are doing." 142 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. " And he's to colour them, Miss Graham ; and we have already got eleven shillings saved up to buy a set of good colours with. Won't it be nice ? And we are going to write a little history of when we see them first, and how long they are about the river, and what they seem to do, and every- thing we can notice about them, so as to make a little history of each fly. It will be so useful to us as fishermen, too." " Indeed, Robert, it will be very interesting, and I could almost wish that I was going to be one of the firm. But will you remember, that if you want a little help ever, in your drawing or colour- ing, and you can spare an hour or two to come here, I will give you any hints or help I can." And without waiting for their thanks, she went across the room to one of two handsome ebony cabinets, and said, " I must leave you here, now. This is my collection of Lepidoptera in these drawers. lou can take them out and examine them till you are tired. Only I must say that my brother wants you for half aii hour before you go ; and he will be in his own room till half-past three." The boys spent a pleasantly occupied hour over the butterflies ; indeed, more than that ; they did not know how long ; and were only roused at last by hearing the clock on the mantelpiece strike a A TAME OTTER. . 143 quarter after something, and looking up they saw it was after three. And then, carefully replacing the drawers, they hastened to Sir Cuthbert's room. They found him just sealing his last letter, and ready to go with them to the kennels, to show them his last new pet." On opening one of the compartments usually occupied by three or four small spaniels, which the boys had seen with Banks more than once when going to attend his master in cover-shooting, an animal of much more length than height came toddling out of the interior of the place. It was of a darkish brown colour, and with a head something resembling that of an overgrown water-rat. "Oh! it's an otter," cried Bob, directly. " Where did you get it, Sir Cuthbert?" " Well, Watt brought it here this morning. It was taken as a cub last summer, about six miles down the Wassett, and tamed by the boy that caught it. However, he found it was not easy to keep such a hungry creature, and turned it over to the Miller at Chipping-hole Mill. The Miller, in his turn, got tired of it, but could not bear to kill it, and so offered it to Banks for me. And here he is, highly accomplished, I can tell you. Watt has had charge of him for about five weeks, and he will do almost anything in the list of otter-accomplish- 144 PLAY-HOUKS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. ments, Watt says, at his bidding; fetch and carry like a dog, follow him up and down, and even bring him a share of his fish-dinner. But here comes Watt himself with a wet cast-net, and half a pailful of fish. Now you shall see the creature perform." Watt, at Sir Cuthbert's command, emptied his fish, principally roach and chub of fair size, into a large stone trough of clear water, five or six feet long by half as many deep and broad, that was let into the pavement of the kennel-yard, and then coming to the kennel, opened the door and whistled one short sharp note. The otter, with rather awkward gambols, ran to his feet in a moment, and raised himself against the watcher's leg to put one of his paws in the man's hand. Watt raised him in his arms and took him to the edge of the water. In a moment the creature was in the water, gliding in, and, although so quickly, still without a splash. A moment more and he emerged again with the biggest chub of the lot, which he took to Watt and laid down, and then returned to fish for himself. In a very few minutes he had caught six or seven other fish, and had eaten the thick part of each, leaving the heads and tails ; and then he appeared quite satisfied, and not at all inclined to make any. further piscatorial efforts. The two boys were enchanted at this novel sight, GOOD-BYE TO THE OTTER. 145 and asked plenty of questions of both Sir Cuthbert and the watcher ; and then, having seen the otter return to his temporary abode, after thanking their kind friend, they took leave of him, and started off at such a pace on their return as was pretty sure to enable them to maintain their well-earned cha- racter for punctuality. CHAPTEE VII. Bottom-fishing Tussle with a large Perch Ultimate Victory Its Dissection Bait-fishing for Trout More Bites than Catches The Reason why Bottom-fishing with Float versus Bottom-fishing without A little Fish Talk. SEVERAL days subsequent to that of the ' Moth and Butterfly Lecture* had passed since the final com- pletion of all overhaulings, and repairings, and re- storations required by the various parts of the fish- ing-tackle belonging to Bob and his cousin ; and more than once a hasty run down to the bridge below Docwra's mill, between morning and after- noon school, had enabled them to wet their fly-lines, and try whether their wrists had lost their fly- fishing cunning. Once too, a day or two after their walk to Wrilton, having found themselves masters of time enough to permit them to spend a clear hour and half on the river bank (if only they betook themselves to the nearest point), they had gone down with their old original hazel fishing- rods. These rods were newly begarnished, however, with a series of rings (the task of some of their play-hours spent in angling preparations) and show- PERCH-FISHING. 147 ing a 'running-line/ carefully threaded through them ; said running line, though, terminating in a shotted length of gut, an ordinary gut hook beneath it, and a quill float upon its upper portion. They had also with them their several worm-bags, duly supplied with clean moss and sundry well- scoured ' brandlings/ Thus equipped, they had, by permission of the miller, commenced fishing just below the sluices at which the spare water (and, when the mill was not going, the entire stream) ran past, and thence flowing along a strongly-curved channel, rejoined the waters of the mill-tail about three hundred yards lower down. There was plenty of water passing down this channel, although the mill was working at nearly its full capability ; and their intention was to try for a perch or two. In less than ten minutes from the first wetting of their lines, Bob had got a perch of eight or ten ounces weight, and Jack one rather bigger yet. Thinking they had fallen in with a shoal of perch, Bob had rebaited his hook with great care, and was prepared to fish the hole he was at with all his skill. His float had passed down its swim once, however, without so much as a nibble, and he had just reco- vered his line and dropped it so as to go over the ground a second time. Voices behind him caused him to look round, and he saw three more of ' our fellows' coming past the end of the mill with rods 148 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. in their hands. But his attention was quickly called back to his own affairs ; for turning* with a bottom-fisher's instinct to look at his float, im- mediately he had ascertained that he and Jack were not going to be the only anglers there, he just caught a glimpse of the red quill-cap of it, as it disappeared beneath the not over-pellucid wave. A smart jerk was given on the instant, almost as instinctively as the glance had been the moment preceding, and his nerves tingled, pleasurably, as only a fisherman's can, with the sensation of resis- tance offered by the fish that had seemed so desirous of appropriating the neatly painted cork. In less than ten seconds Bob was heartily congratulating himself that he had running-tackle : what he had hooked he did not know. It might be a kelpie, or a young river-horse, or a finny and scaly Samson, it was so strong. It had an astonishing inclina- tion, also, to make to the very deepest part of the hole tradition said it was twelve feet deep when there was no water at all running off" that way and, arrived there, to dig down, ever deeper and more strongly ; not slowly and gently, but fiercely, rapidly, irresistibly. The rod bent, the reel whizzed, the line flashed through the water. But the lad's fly-fishing experience, and recollection of divers hints from Banks, from his brother, from Mr. Spencer, stood him in good stead, arid he kept AN OBTRUSIVE TREE. 149 a steady pull on his fish. After an anxious minute and half which seemed to him much more during the time, and much less when thinking of it afterwards he found himself able to recover some line, and to get his fish within some fifteen or eighteen feet of the end of his rod ; and then the perverse monster took it into his head to cut off down stream as hard as he could go. Not that that would have mattered much, only there hap- pened to be a nice little series of pollard willows planted at intervals of twenty or thirty yards all along each bank of the ' backwater' and, with a good strong fish towing along at the end of your line like a small self-acting ' tug/ it is not easy to pass a tree which stands between you and the river. Bob managed to swing himself under the first without noticeable loss of line. But, on coming to the second, it was evident that, except dexterous management were helped by a good bit of pure luck, he might easily come to considerable grief; for this tree excessively tiresome and ill- behaved of it, no doubt leaned forwards quite over the water ; and Bob's only dodge must be to throw himself forward, bringing his breast against the trunk, embracing it at the same time, and passing the fishing-rod from his left to his right hand ; after which he was to recover himself, and set off at a good tidy pace in company with his fish. And 150 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. the evolution in all its parts was to be completed if intended to be successful in a little less than no time. Bob made his plunge, hugged the tree,, and passed the rod, most successfully. The back- ward effort also was made, and purchase obtained with his left hand almost as successfully ; and he was on the very point of resuming his run, when he saw his fish of course with a good piece of line gained heading over a shallow, for a rapid run of stream ending in a deep hole behind a huge tree-root, which had been, nobody knew how long, embedded in the river bottom just there. In an instant he resolved on his tactics. Balancing him- self for a single second, he leaped with all his energy in the effort to clear as much of the deep water as he could, and splashing down into a place where it was only knee deep, with his rod thrown back over his shoulder, he made two steps forward to where it was only ankle deep, and reeled up three yards of line in very quick time. He had his fish at a disadvantage now. Keeping his rod well up, so as to clear the tree-root, he soon had his victim happily past what is such a terrible bete noire to the fisherman, and the dernier ressort to the distressed fish ; and then, tramping on along the shallows, the fish being compelled to yield to the joint persuasion of the current and the rod, or else fight upwards against the NO END OP A PERCH. 151 stream either course equally disadvantageous to it he soon had everything his own way, and towed his captive, nearly unresisting, on to a gravelly flat, almost bare of water, which presented itself in the middle of the confluence of the mill-tail and backwater. The fish was a perch of almost four pounds in weight, and second to none that had been caught at Elmdon for thirteen years. Just so long ago, to the very month even, one of four pounds and an ounce had been taken just below the ' mill-race ' by the bandy-legged cobbler who still worked for the school ; and an. outline of it was marked on the mill-wall, above the machinery for regulating or cutting off the supply of water to the wheel. Bob was far too wet to continue his fishing with comfort, and Jack had too many companions to be either very hopeful of further success or anxious to court it ; and so, both of them, winding up their lines, returned with all speed to the school. Just as Bob had got on some dry togs as he expressed it and was going across to his study, the Doctor, who had heard of the contest with the perch and its successful issue from the mathematical master (who had witnessed the latter part of it), came into the school-yard on purpose to see the notable capture. Bob was only too pleased to show it, and had, as he told Jack soon after, to " answer 152 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF -HOLIDAYS. as many questions about the fight and its phases as if he had been up at ' collections' ; " and he was not a little gratified at Dr. Noble's final comment : "Well done, Benson. You deserved to catch him ; an older hand than you might easily have been beat there. Your decision and determination saved you." The Doctor, however, was quite resolute, a little to BoVs disappointment, in not accepting the fine perch for his own use. But he mitigated the disappointment greatly by suggesting to the two cousins to carry it to a person who would be pleased with the attention, and who had been often kind to them; namely, to Dr. Hazlehurst, at the museum ; and as they speedily trotted off with that intention, Dr. Noble himself followed them, and entering through the open doors to the antiquarian's library, heard him mingling up thanks to the captors and admiration of the capture in a rather whimsical medley. Standing unnoticed for a moment or two in the room, he presently heard the further words, " So the Doctor wouldn't take him ? The less wise the Doctor, then:" and then he spoke him- self: " All for the good of the museum, Hazlehurst. Such a splendid specimen as that must be carefully stuffed and preserved, of course." DISSECTING THE PERCH. 158 " Certainly, my dear Doctor, if stuffing is necessary. But I will ask my cook about that." Holding up his hands in reprehension of such " gluttonous indifference to the claims of science on the part of the principal of such an establishment as 'Elmdon Literary and Philosophical Institute, with Museum attached/ " Dr. Noble quietly said, " But of course you will dissect him, Doctor. May I inquire at what hour the dissection will take place ?" and then in the kindest way, offered his assistance ; which was at once accepted, on condi- tion that he brought the two boys with him, and turned them loose (that is, if they did not object) among the collection of British antiquities, which filled a case occupying one entire side of the room they were in. The ' dissection' took place at half-past five, and Bob and his cousin had to assist at it, and dis- charged their part as scientifically as at the take ; and after that, spent a very interesting hour in examining a beautiful collection of British pottery, and certain other articles similar to those met with on Turley moor a week or two since ; with the advantage of finding each article ticketed with place and date of discovery, and with such descrip- tions attached as the Doctor's extensive antiquarian knowledge had enabled him to make out. On the Thursday following the capture of the perch, it was 154 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. resolved, after much consideration, that the fish ought 'to take the fly' by this time; and that, if nothing interposed to forbid it, they would take their fly-rods and try for a trout in Turley brook. The day was all that could be wished, and they set forth after morning school with highly-raised expectations. They were not destined, however, to proceed very far ; for as they went running on they were quite too nervously expectant to walk just after clearing the town, on turning the corner near the mill, they came suddenly on Robert Banks. Of course they stopped to speak to him, and tell him where they were going, and what for. He replied, "I am afraid, young gentlemen, it'll be no go this morning. It's much too mucky for the fly yet. There was heavy rain night afore last over the moor, and the brooks are all thick and black as yet. But it would be famous ' bait-fishing/ You might get a good basketful with the brand- ling." " Oh ! thank you, Banks ; we'll go back and get our other rods and lines, and try with the worm." "Why, couldn't you manage without going back, sir ? You'll have spare gut and some hooks with yon, I should say ?" " Oh ! yes," cried Bob, " I have plenty of gut, BAIT-FISHING FOR TROUT. 155 and some hooks that are quite big enough for trout, Fm sure. But then, you know, we haven't got a float, nor even a single shot between us." " Float, Master Robert ! Why, you don't want a float for trout. Young gentlemen that can't do without a float shouldn't go near a trout-stream, sir. By the quiet gudgeon streams, or near a good minnow hole, or out of a punt in a sluggish, pondy sort of creeping stream's the place for them chaps to catch roach and dace when they are kind enough to bite. But it's other guess sort o' work, bait- fishing for trout." 11 No float, Banks ! Why, how are we to know when a fish bites ?" asked Bob, rather innocently as well as wonderingly. "Well, Master Robert, I never found you so green afore ; excuse me for saying so. Don't you think you'd know whether a fish rose at your fly, even if you had your eyes shut, and he took it fairly I mean, didn't miss it?" " Why, I should think so. It just gives quite a little jerk. But what's that to do with fishing with a worm ?" " Why, just this, Master Robert. That unless you know the very instant the trout takes the worm, you are not likely to catch him. You caught a grand perch the other day, I heard. Now did you mind how big its mouth was ? And which 156 PLAY- HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. would be the biggest, the mouth of such a perch as that, or a trout's of a pound weight ?" " Well, the trout's, I should say/' (i I should say so too leastwise, I should think so. Well, then, instead of making so to say two bites of his cherry, the trout waps the worm, big as the hook is that is used, at once into his mouth ; while roach, and dace, and perch of the same size haggle at it a good bit first. On this account, therefore, though roach and the like want a bit of time given them, the trout doesn't, or scarce any. Besides which, as he champs the worm, when he's got it in his mouth, with his sharp teeth a bit, he is pretty sure to detect the hook and spit all out together, and not long about it' either. So, most trout-fishers strike almost as soon as they feel the bite. Then there's another thing, Master Robert young gentlemen both, I should say and that is, that trout mostly feed at bottom, at the tails of streams, and over sandy or gravelly ground, where there's current enough to make a float of no use at all, and worse. With a float on, you'd always be thinking you had a bite ; besides which, the depth of a single swim of the line is likely to vary from ten or twelve inches to two or three feet, and you'd want a patent, double-action, self-regulating float to do for that, I should say." " I tell you what, Banks, you're a regular TAKING BOB DOWN A PEG. 157 well, something disagreeable, You're always taking the conceit out of me. Why, you called me a cockney up there by the river last spring ; and now, you've made me out a worse one yet. Why don't you have a shy at Jack, here ? Just by way of a change, you know." " Well, sir, Master Edwards wasn't brought up amongst gentlemen as took to fishing and shooting as natural as walking, as a man may say you've been. And besides, he always listens and notices so : he never makes a blunder, such as we country folks laugh at, twice over, He's the most noticing young gentleman, for all he's so quiet, I ever came across. And 'tisn't the quiet ones, it's the cheeky chaps, Master Robert, that a man likes to get hold of a hair in the necks of, now and then/' " I tell you what, Banks ; it's a good thing for you I'm not as big as Sir Cuthbert ; or else But how long are you going to be in Elmdon ?" " Oh ! only about a quarter of an hour : and if I haven't riled you too much (he laughed good- naturedly as he said so), I think I could give you a hint or two this afternoon, you'd maybe find useful. If you was to go as far as the bridge near my house, and knot together a couple of gut bottoms, about two foot long each, or a little better, with a loop at each end, and put a trout hook on at the lower loop, I'll get a few No. 2 shot at 158 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. Hart the gunmaker's, ready split; and I lay 1 shan't be much behind you." And so it was settled ; and the lads went on and had three bottoms made and looped ready by the time the keeper rejoined them at the specified place. Nipping on four or five shots just above the loop to which the hook link was affixed, he placed the bottom at the end of the fly -line, which had been ready threaded in anticipation ; and then, walking on with them to a likely stream and gravel, he took Bob's rod, and with only about four or five feet of line out, threw the bait (one of several worms he had found under some stones he had turned over in search of them) into the stream. This done, he carefully kept the point of the rod gently moving, as the stream moved the shot and bait; but so that the line was always as nearly straight as might be, from the top of the rod to the bait end. The very first swim the boys noticed the tip of the rod move with a sort of slight jerk, which was responded to by a quick turn of the keeper's wrist ; which turn fixed the hook firmly in the jaw of a half-pound trout. It was a new light to Bob and Jack seeing that trout angled for and caught ; and they felt confident they could catch others in the same way without difficulty. So, leaving Bob at the stream where this commencement had been made, and placing THE BITER NOT ALWAYS BIT. 159 Jack at another good place a little lower down, the keeper went across the two or three fields which lay between the river and his house, in order to fetch them a good supply of ' brandlings/ The young fishermen found there was no diffi- culty in getting bites. The fish were very hungry, and the water in its very most favourable condition for bait-fishing; there was no difficulty either in feeling the bite, and very plainly too. But there did seem to be a difficulty in hooking the fish that bit so freely. Five bites, six, seven, Bob had ; and five, six, seven jerks did he give, but still the hook never fastened in the hungry jaws. And it was much the same with Jack. At last, however, a shout from the latter announced an event of some sort. Bob laid his rod down, the baited hook still in the water, and ran across to his cousin. It was a fact : he had got a trout, and a nice one ; though it had hooked itself, obligingly enough, while he had been looking behind him to see if Banks were coming. Having seen the trout landed and basketed, Bob ran quickly back to his own rod, and on lifting it found he too had ' caught f but it was a nasty little, slimy, twisting eel. Disposing of it with small ceremony, he rebaited, and re- turned his line to the water, to feel almost instan- taneously the peculiar slight tug and quiver which the lithe fly-rod transmits to the hand with such 160 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. peculiar distinctness, from the slight action of the fish's jaws. Giving an answering jerk on the impulse of the moment, he had the delight of feel- ing that he had hooked the persevering plunderer of his hook ; for no doubt the same fish had taken more than one of the baits he had just before lost. Three more misses though had ensued when the gamekeeper came up again with the supply of bait, and to him Bob quickly communicated the series of disappointments he had met with, compensated only by one success. Banks presently explained to him the probable cause, which was simply that he did not manage his rod and line in such a way that notice of the bite should be transmitted with the least possible delay to the hand. If there was much ( slack' in the line, he said a case which would surely occur if the point of the rod was more down stream than the line itself, and especially if so held that almost all the line was in the water; or again, if the rod-end did not keep even pace with the bait in its passage downwards, and so caused the middle of the line to drag and curve with the force of the water ; in either case, there would be delay in perceiving the bite as well as some strain on the hook and bait from the action of the stream on the line, either of which causes was sufficient to account for missing the fish, and much more, both together. A very long rod and a short line, so as A WRINKLE GOT. 161 to allow the angler always to have the point of the rod as nearly as possible over the bait which should only just touch the bottom sufficiently not to be swept off it by the stream would be the very best equipment for this style of fishing, if only such a rod could be made light enough and elastic enough. As this could not very easily be effected, the angler's skill must be drawn upon, and the nearest approach that could be made with the ordinary rod to the state of things he had de- scribed, would be found the most successful in practice. Bob thought he understood the keeper's theory, and soon perceived where the chief difficulty lay ; arid before the day's fishing terminated found him- self able to catch about one in every three that bit, or nearly so. And Jack's proficiency, under the same sort of instruction, kept pace pretty evenly with his cousin's. The result of their afternoon's sport was just nineteen trout and a couple of middling eels. And it was rather amusing to listen to the conversation on the comparative merits of bottom-fishing with and without a float, which took place as they walked schoolward. Bob maintained that fishing with a float was ( slow/ "You stand on the river bank," said he, "and you watch your float sauntering down the slow M 162 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. stream, and perhaps your hook drags a little, and the float stops or slants over, and you fancy it is a nibble. And then it goes on again, and after another nod or two, reaches the end of the swim, and you have to begin anew. And if you do catch anything it is only a roach or a dace, most likely. But fishing as we have been doing it to- day that's something like ! Your bait is toddling along briskly, and your eye and hand and wits must all be alive ; and then you don't stay long in a place, but keep moving on, if the trout don't happen to take where you are, to some other place. And if you are in the right place, why they bite something like, and don't they jump about just ? No more float-fishing for me, Jack, old boy, that's what I say." " But, Bob, wouldn't you go down to the mill again to-morrow for a two-pounder perch, spite of having to use the float ?" " Well, I don't know, Jack, about that. I think I would. But that's different. What I mean is that float-fishing is so slow, you know; there's no life irr it." "Now, old fellow, I don't think that's quite fair, nor yet quite like you. I think the difference is more in the fish you are trying to catch, than in float or no float. The trout lives in a different sort of way, and a different sort of place from the h'sh AJANNEKS AND CUSTOMS OF DIFFERENT FISH. one uses a float for : and he acts differently in "biting, and when you hook him. It may be very ' slow' in me, Bob, but I think I shall always like a little bit of quiet float- fishing in one of these pretty pools, with the green meadows before and behind, and the overhanging willows, and the variety of fish that one may catch, though they may be all e coarse,' as Banks calls them. Though there is one thing I don't like about it, and that is having to use the worms as we do. That's the great beauty of fly-fishing, that one needn't meddle with any living thing for one's bait. It always spoils half my pleasure to put the worm on the hook." " I tell you what, Jack old fellow," cried Bob, after a few minutes of silence, *' I think you have hit the right nail on the head. There's more dif- ference in the ways of the fish than I thought of, when I talked that bosh about float-fishing. Why gudgeons and minnows are always in shoals ; the gudgeons on or near the bottom where it's gravelly, the minnows in midwater near some bridge or overhanging bank. Then the perch swim in smaller shoals, too, and are generally moving about, though perhaps they don't swim very far away from home. And roach, and dace, and chub, they swim about ' a sort of promiscuous like.' In one of those pools you talked of just now and half-a-dozen popped 164 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. into my mind as you spoke, quite like those pretty pictures my old camera used to make you may see them, on a still day when the water is very clear, moving gently about; some near the top, some near the bottom, and some in the middle, and in a hundred different directions, seeming to think of nothing at all, only just enjoying being alive and well. But it's so different with a trout, I know. A fair sized trout always has his own 'seat' as fishermen call it. I think one might say his own 'beat* quite as describingly. 1 mean, he is always f to be heard of somewhere near one particular spot, if not actually on it. Mr. Spencer told me a lot about it one day last summer ; that Whitadder day, you know, one part of it. He said everybody who fished much in any particular stream, always knew lots of places where he was about sure of a rise from a good fish. And if he caught one of them, there was sure to be another there before long." " Yes/' broke in Jack, (< and that same day, while you were some bit off with Ned, he and I stopped behind some bushes and a tree trunk for near half- an-hour, to watch the goings on of two or three trout we had in sight. One was a big fellow, ten or eleven inches long. There was a little bit of an eddy, and he lay a little below this, about his own length below the surface. He would not move far except to suck in some small insect on one side or HOW BIG TROUT BEHAVE. 165 other, for five minutes or more ; and then he would quietly swim off, round a space of five or six feet square, just to see all was right like, and after that he came back to the old place again. Once or twice a strange trout came within the tabooed limits, and the big chap darted at him like a flash of lightning, and pitched into him no end, if he didn't cut his lucky. Mr. Spencer said sometimes a bigger chap, turned out of his own seat by one bigger yet would come, and then there was a battle, and the weaker though the rightful owner had to go to the wall, and the victorious invader became the usurper " Hear, hear," cried Bob. " Jack, you're a regular orator, getting to be, and no mistake. That was what the Doctor would call a 'well-turned sentence/ if it was in your theme." "Hold your jaw, Bob, and don't be rude. You're personal, young fellow. And it's only ' them as knows no better' that are personal. But, I say, Bob, isn't it a pity we only know such a little about the ways the manners and customs, like of fish generally?" " Isn't it, old fellow ? My uncle James told me ever so much about eels, one day, which he said he had got to know by watching 'em as you and Mr. Spencer did the trout. Isn't it a queer dodge just, that a trout stream should be like ' mapped- ]66 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. out,' in all its best parts, by the knowing old hands ? But it's a queerer thing still that trout can change their colour at least, that their colour does change according to circumstances?" " What do you mean, Bob ? I never heard any- thing about such a change as that." " Why, I mean that if a trout's cruising ground is over a dark bottom and between dark banks he'll be a dark coloured fish himself. If over a light-coloured bottom, he'll be light coloured; and if he lives among objects of intermediate shades, he'll be neither dark nor light himself, but betwixt and between. Nay, I remember reading of one whose 'beat' was between a dark-coloured bank, almost black, and a lightish-coloured big stone; and he had one dark side and one light. But the oddest thing is and my father and Ned both say it is true, to their knowledge that if you take a light-coloured fish out of a light-coloured home, and a dark one out of a dark home, and just change their homes, so to speak, in the course of an hour or two the dark fish will have got to be light, and the light-coloured one, dark. So the chameleon isn't the only codger as changes his colour, old chap." While their tongues were wagging away in talk of this sort, their legs were not idle ; and almost to their own surprise they found themselves within BACK AGAIN. 167 sight of the school gates as these last words were spoken by Bob. Their conversation, therefore, came to an end, and they carefully disposed of their various articles of piscatorial equipment, and then proceeded to prepare for the school duties of the evening. CHAPTER VIII. An unexpected present Who's the giver ? How to recompense her? An Expedition to Chilton Crags and Mere The River Leven, and what they saw near it The Mere The Flowering Rush, Bogbean, Golden Dock, and Marsh Speed- wellTeal's Nest Mr. Forster. IT was getting very near the Easter holidays, and it was fixed that the two boys were to go to Mr. Charles Benson, Bob's uncle's, for the three or four days during which school work was suspended. They had just finished their morning's work in school, and were entering their 'den' with their various books under their arms, when Bob, half turning round as Jack followed him in, said, " I say, Jack, lad, we've never got an egg this year yet. For I don't call those two or three hedge-sparrows' nests, and that blackbird's, and those two thrushes', that we found last week, any- thing. Really, we must have a regular nesting- day-" Bob's harangue was abruptly stopped by his cousin pushing quickly past him, dropping his WHAT'S THE ROW? 169 books rather than laying them down, seizing up a neatly packed brown paper parcel of about a foot square, and exclaiming as he did so, " Bob, I say Bob, whatever can this be ?" Bob's books were flung down on the flue which went along the back of all these little rooms denominated studies by the authorities, ' dens' by f the boys' and which served as a seat, or a book- shelf, or a sofa, or a table, as occasion required, and he caught the parcel out of his cousin's hand, and read out as he did so, ' Masters Benson and Edwards, Grammar School, Elrndon. From Quillinan and Forster, Stationers and Booksellers/ " My word, Jack, what is it ? Bless this knot, it won't come undone. Lend us your knife, I say ; sharp's the word, you sucking snail, you. No, not the blade ; the pricker at the back. That's it. You're something like, now. There, there's one undone. Well now, if that isn't enough to make one f cut' string for ever ! Here's three more knots !" " Well, cut it in earnest, Bob." " Cut such beautiful string as that, you careless, wasteful, extravagant offspring of a shooting-iron ! Cut my own tail off, sooner. There, there's another undone ; and the next two are easy. Hooray ! there it is, all off. Undo it, Jack, while I take care of this beautiful piece of f band,' as 170 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. Yorkshire Willy, the new boy, calls it. Queer thing he can't call himself Bill, like a native. Hullo ! Jack, what's the row ?" He might well ask, for Jack, usually so quiet and undemonstrative, had set up a great shout, and was jumping about the study like one pos- sessed. He soon saw ; and his own joy took the direc- tion of seizing Jack by the collar and shaking him well, and after that pitching into him with his fists at the rate of thirteen to the dozen. Here- upon Jack, as if Bob's gladness had sought quite the most natural expression possible, and therefore showing no sign whatever of resentment, put his arm round his cousin's neck, and drew him up to the desk to contemplate the occasion of the out- break, saying as he did so, " Oh ! Bob, I am so glad. Now you can get on really, old fellow." It was a box of Reeve's water-colours, with eighteen cakes, or, as the boys expressed it, ' paints,' in a threefold row, together with water-glass, Indian ink, Indian-rubber, a dozen samel's-hair brushes, lead pencils, and all complete ; besides a drawer containing palette, and sundry other apparatus. "Jack, that's Miss Graham's doing, I'm sure it is. Isn't it kind ? Well, I know two things that DIFFERENT WAYS OF MAKING A PRESENT. 171 she wants, and we can get them both, old boy. But we wont take the trouble, will we ? I should just think not I" "Do you really think she sent this, Bob? Why, what ever should make her ?" " Of course she did. Why, who else was likely ? You let it out the other day that we were going to get one, as soon as we could muster up enough tin. And isn't it just like her, and Sir Cuthbert's way, too ? Just to think what would give us most pleasure, and then do that thing and no other. I'm sure it's her, from that." " Bob, I do think you're right. She and Sir Cuthbert, and Lady Graham too for the matter of that, when they do you a kindness and I think that's about as often as they have the opportunity always do it so as to make you like to have it done, and make you so full of thankfulness, and quite to love them." " Aye, Jack, I know what you mean. There's old Scrimgeour, my mother's old Indian uncle, he always gives me a couple of sovereigns when he sees me, but he seems to do it as if he thought he must because he's a rich man, and I'm my mother's son. It's just as if he chucked a bone, that he didn't care about keeping himself, to a dog that he didn't want to starve ; and as if he said, ' There, take that, you young cur, and think yourself lucky. 172 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. It gives me no pleasure to give it you, and I don't care whether you have any in getting it ; only let me tell you it's a deuced handsome tip/ But \n't it different with Sir Cuthbert and Miss Gra- ham ? I believe if they were quite poor people, and had nothing but a cold tatie to give to some- body poorer still, they'd do it so as to make him feel it was given oh! so kindly and just the right way. But, Jack, what are we to do ? We must thank her, you know. But how ? Will you write a note ? I'm sure I daren't." " I, Bob ! /write a note to Miss Graham. It 'ud be as much as I should dare to do to Tay Spencer ! I'm sure I don't Oh, there's Dr. Noble going across the yard, let's ask him !" No sooner said than done. Both boys bolted out of the den, and ran across to their master, who, hearing them coming, turned round, and on observing their eager looks, cried, " What now, boys ? what's the matter ?" " Please, Dr. Noble, we've got a present, and we don't know what to do : would you mind telling us?" " Telling you what, my boys ? Whether to keep it or send it back ?" " No, sir, not that," said Bob, answering the Doctor's smile as much as his words ;" we don't think the giver meant us to send it back. But we WHAT IS TO BE DONE AND HOW? 173 only gness at who gave it us, and we want to know how to send our thanks to the person we mean." The Doctor inquired into the particulars, and on hearing what the two boys had to say, quite agreed with them that Miss Graham was the pro- bable giver, and said further that he knew she and Lady Graham were in Elmdon that day, and that their the boys' best plan would be to go with him to his drawing-room in about a quarter of an hour's time, (when he would be passing through the yard again), and there they would be sure to see both the two ladies in question, for they were going to take luncheon with Mrs. Noble at one o'clock. So the lads brushed themselves up, and con- tended for the no-honour of not being spokesman, and hadn't settled the question when they saw Dr. Noble reappear at the gate, and begin to cross the yard in the direction of his own private entrance. Hastening to join him, they were taken by him to the room in which the lady they wished to see was already seated with her mother, saying as he entered " Miss Graham, two of my pupils have been laying a charge against you; on suspicion only, 1 must admit; but at the same time I must say the circumstances seem to make strongly against you. I hope you will be able to give satisfactory reasons for your conduct." 174 PLAY-HOUKS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. Miss Graham answered with great serious- ness, " If I have done anything very naughty, Dr. Noble, I suppose I must say I'm very sorry, and I'll be a better girl another time ; and then if I make my best curtsey to the young gentlemen I have aggrieved, I hope they will forgive me. But I think I ought to know what I am accused of. What have I done, Robert, that you should ( carry tales' to the master? I wonder at you doing such a thing." However, Bob wasn't to be put aside from his purpose by her badinage, or even to answer her in the same tone, until he had said what he had to say. So he began "Please,Miss Graham, we found a paint-box, just now, which had been sent to us while we were in school. There was nothing with it to say who had sent it, but it was directed in both our names, and we remembered telling you about our plans and wishes the other day, and so we thought it would be just like you to send us what we said we were wishing so to get, and saving up for it. And please, Miss Graham, we want to ask you if it was you that sent it, and if it was which we are almost sure of we want to tell you how very kind of vou we think it, and to say that we don't know how to thank you enough." MISS GRAHAM'S CONFESSION. 175 Miss Graham, seeing how much in earnest he was, answered him accordingly : " Well, Robert, I must not say that it was not I that sent the box, for it was. Only I must not have all the blame thrown upon me. Mamma suggested it ; for I told her what you had been saying about your joint plans for the river insects, and she said, e W hy, the season for almost all those insects will be gone by before the poor boys can scrape together money enough to get a set of colours. Why shouldn't we get one for them ? They will treasure it quite as much as if they bought it with their own savings, and use it just as industriously. Don't you think so ?' And so I only said, ' Yes, mamma, I do think so, and I will write to Quillinan and Forster to get me one if they have not one in stock.' So don't put it all upon me, please." It was Jack's turn now to speak, it seemed ; for happening to be close to Lady Graham with whonc he had been shaking hands, he said to her, " And it was you, Lady Graham, that made Sir Cuthbert give us the fishing-rods instead of money. It's like my own mother." " Then you forgive me, Robert, and you too, Master Edwards ?" inquired Miss Graham a mo- ment after. " No, I don't, Miss Graham > and I'll pay you 176 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. out, if ever I can, and every opportunity I have : see if I don't. And so'll my cousin, too/' cried Bob, with mock defiance, " and I'm glad I know a way, too/' " What, no escape for me ? Then I will meet you half-way, to show you I am not afraid. 'Do you know the butomus ? The flowering rush is its English name." *' Yes, Miss Graham, I do. When we were at Cliffborough, summer before last, I went one day, with dear old Dr. Maxwell to the Mere, and he showed me the flowering rush in full bloom. So beautiful 1 thought it; I think I should know it again directly." " What, if it were not in bloom, Benson ?" put in the Doctor. " Oh yes, sir ! I noticed it so closely I feel sure I should know it at any time." " Well, Robert," continued Miss Graham, " 1 want three or four plants good ones, mind of the butomus, to plant in the great pond in the Wilderness. I want also four or six good plants of the bogbean. Do you know that ?" " I do, Miss Graham," cried Jack ; " I know it well, and could tell its leaf among a hundred. It's called buckbean, too, isn't it ?" "Yes, it is, but I like the name bogbean best Well, I want these plants, and I can tell you where A COMMISSION. 177 obey grow. And I want you to get them for me, with great care about their roots, and bringing them back. Will you undertake it ?" " I should think we will, just," cried Bob, in his eagerness ; and then recollecting himself, added in a quieter tone, " Where are we to look for them ?" " Do you know Chilton Crags ? those tall rocks you saw from the first barrow that was opened the other day, with a large wood at their foot; about four miles down the Wassett on the Elmdon side?" " Oh, yes ! quite well, and I have often wished to go there ; only I did not know if we might " " I think you may. I told Mr. Forster I wanted to send to Chilton Mere for these plants, and he said anybody I sent was welcome to go anywhere on his property. But what I was going to say is, you must get to Chilton, and going through the little street you will come to a bridge over the slow- flowing Leven. Instead of crossing the bridge, turn up to the right, pursuing the horsepath as far as it goes direct. When it turns to the right again, you go straight on over a stile and along the footpath, leaving the woods at the foot of the Crag rather behind you. In about ten minutes' walking you will come to a large mere with a good space of shallow water on the side from which you ap- proach it ; and once there, you will find plenty of N 178 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. the plants I want. Have you your lesson per- fect?" " Oh, yes, quite/' chimed in both boys ; " and we will go our very first holiday. Please, sir, may we ?" added Bob, turning round to Dr. Noble. " Nothing to hinder you that I know of, except you both, by way of a change, come up with bad construing and worse exercises on Thursday morn- ing ; no, Wednesday morning, as your Easter holi- days begin on Thursday. But I think that bell suggests you should go somewhere else just now unless your dinner has no attractions for you to- day." So the two cousins, bidding good-bye to Lady Graham and her daughter, and warned by the up- lifted finger of the latter not to say another word of thanks, left the room, and proceeded to their meal with excellent boy-like appetites. Two days more, and the opportunity for the Chilton Crag expedition offered itself, and was not suffered to slip. Dr. Noble had himself suggested to them that morning before school that their best way would be to get third-class tickets to Chipping Irby station ; for which purpose they must be at Elm don station at 12.5. They would thus get to Chiltou, by walking back from Chipping Irby, in a mile and a half, instead of four miles and a half; and they must make their arrangements accord- AIN'T IT JOLLY? 179 ingly. And an offer he made them at the same time solved a great difficulty, to Bob's extreme satisfaction. It was the use of a small, light spade of cast steel, on a long but tough handle, which the Doctor himself had frequently found useful when he wanted an entire plant of any botanical specimen. Everything was ready for an immediate rush to the station the instant school was dismissed and books put away ; and the lads had their tickets safe just as the engine of the approaching train shut off its steam. In two minutes or less the train was in motion again, and in twenty more they stopped at Chipping. And then the exhilarating sense of freedam and enjoyment of their well-earned relaxa- tion, together with the strangely delightful sensa- tion of being on new ground and having to explore and make discoveries for themselves, came upon them in its full power ; and sometimes they ran a bit, and then whistled a few bars of some school song, and then took three or four long strides and a jump, or checked themselves in a joyous shout or canticle ; in the mere exuberance of youth, and health, and delight. Jack was the first to sober down and to take what might truly be called a practical view of things ; their excursion and its objects especially. " Bob," said he, "ain't it jolly? And blest if 180 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. we ain't at Chilton already. There's the houses, and there's the bridge, loo. Oh ! just look at that beautiful river! The trees almost meet over it. But what's the order of the day, Boh, as Dr. Noble says?" " First thing is, I'll give you ten yards and beat you to the bridge. You wont ? Why, what's the good o'you? Order of the day? That's the card, is it ? Well, get to Chilton Mere as soon as we can. Get some slap-up A-one-ers of plants for Miss Graham I wish I was old enough, I'd marry her to-morrow, Jack and then into those woods, and do a bit of nesting, old fellow. How'll that do ?" " Do, Bob ? why, you're a brick to think of it all. But we shall find something, very likely, be- sides our plants, if we go along the river bank, and so up to the Mere ; for I am sure the Mere must send its spare water into the river." " Capital, Jack. That's what I call 'a good thought, natural ' in earnest. So here goes to the river." Jack didn't quite like his companion's travesty of that phrase from a few pet lines of his, but he followed Bob closely, and, one field crossed, they stood on the bank of the river. Very different was the aspect of that stream from that of the purling, brattling brooks which careered downwards from the Turley heights THE WASSETT AND THE LEVEN. 181 ueyond ; and then down into the main channel of the Wassett. Very different, too, from the Wassett itself, as it passed through Elmdon, and especially where it swept round to the north a mile or so before it received the first of its tributaries from the high lands just named. All along those portions of its course the pool was frequently giving way to the shallow, with streams running over it, making more or less pretension to be, what the fly-fisher emphatically designates ' a stream ;' and, two miles below Elmdon, it was really a good trout river for some short distance. After that, having begun to work its way along an alluvial plain of considerable extent, its character altered greatly; though its current still moved on steadily, it is true, but not very slowly between wide green meadows on either hand, and with its banks dotted every here and there with rather sparse pollarded willow-trees. These banks were washed by the free wave, for the most part ; and in very few places was any edging of reeds, or flags, or sedges observable. But it was otherwise with the stream up the course of which the two boys now began to work their way. Trees some willows, some Lombardy poplars many of them of free growth and large size, stood thickly on either bank, the highest edge of which did not rise ten inches above the ordinary level of the water, and on both sides of 182 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. the river there was a fringe of sedges and flags, in no place less than two feet broad, and often ex- tending to two or three or four times that breadth. The croak of the water-hen, the skulking retreat of the coot, the hurried, headlong dip of the dabchick, were scarcely needed to warn the youth- ful explorers of what were likely to be the living objects in such a scene ; while the incessant uneasy utterances and chidings of dozens of reed-wrens and other similar birds, showed that water-birds proper were by no means all the feathered beings who dwelt there. Bob was striking the low sedges nearest the bank with Dr. Noble's spade every two or three steps ; and close upon one of these brushings, a beautiful bird with black head and some rich brown relieved with white in the plumage of its back and wings, fluttered out and flew a few paces up stream with slow, peculiar flight, such as to display its plumage far more than is usually done by a bird on the wing ; and then lit again. " A reed-sparrow's nest, for a guinea, Jack \" cried Bob; and immediately a close and cautious scrutiny of the thick growth near the point at which he had first caught sight of the bird, was commenced. Still the nest did not appear; and yet he was confident the bird had been disturbed from among the sedges, and it was not likely it DOES THE MALE BIRD EVER SIT? 183 would have sat so close unless it had been on its nest. So Bob began his search anew, and this time with success. In his eagerness at first he had pressed down the mass of sedges which en- closed the nest, instead of parting it, and so the nest had remained concealed. Now, however, it lay revealed, and in it its five dusky coloured, pe- culiarly streaked and spotted eggs, proclaiming at once their bunting original. Jack had been rather incredulous about the existence of a nest there, from the fact that it was the male bird which had flown off, and he said so. And this gave occasion, after the usual two eggs had been consigned to the egg-box, to BoVs remark, " Well, old fellow, you see, after all, that there was a nest : and that, therefore, the bird we saw, cock though he was, must have been on it. I don't think that's such a very unusual thing. I fancy the cock bird of many different species if the truth were known often does his share of sitting. I believe the partridge does, for one; and I know that when the eggs are getting near hatching, he does help the hen to sit then. Both Ned and my father have seen them, and Banks told me the same thing one day. Tame pigeons do the same : I mean the cock takes his turn with the hen : and so does the stone plover. And we certainly had a proof here with the reed sparrow, 184 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. for the eggs are quite warm yet. My word, Jack, what a tree this would be," striking an alder-tree, with a copious growth of ivy encircling the whole of the lower parts of the trunk, " for sparrows nests, if it were but near any buildings." The words were hardly out of his mouth, and the blow of the spade had hardly sounded which it did rather loudly before a great flapping ensued from among the ivy overhead, accompanied with a loud " quack, quack, quack." Jack was rather astounded, and looked it. Of t an owl in an ivy-bush" he had heard ; of a duck similarly ensconced he had never so much as dreamed. However, duck it was and no mistake, and out of an ivied tree to boot. While Jack was looking, with mouth still rather open, after the receding duck, Bob was systematically preparing himself, by buttoning his jacket and laying aside egg-case, spade, and other impedimenta, for an ascent of the tree. The ivy-stem, with its thick, strong sinuosities, gave him good foothold as well as handhold; and in twenty seconds he was high enough to look into a sort of ivy encircled basin rather than fork in the tree ; and therein, surely enough, was a rudely constructed nest of dry reeds and coarse grass, with a scanty lining of feathers, which seemed at no distant date to have clothed the person of the lady QUEER SITES OF DUCKS' NESTS. 185 of the house herself; and in the nest lay ten indis- putable duck eggs. Jack could not rest content without an ascent and inspection on his own account; and even then rather reluctantly gave in to the dogmatic assertion that " seeing is believing." A duck in a tree seemed to him about as conve- nient, and with about as much of the right- thing- in-the-right-place quality in it, as an owl in a duck-pond, or a cock-pheasant in a canary's-cage. " Well, that is a go I" he said, as he stood below again, after satisfying himself. " But I have heard of a rummer," answered Bob, "and that was a wild duck's nest on the open moor, a mile from any water ; and another in the head of a pollard elm that was two or three fields off any ; sixteen or seventeen feet above the level ground too, it was. How the old lady brown in either case intended or contrived to get her young safe down, or through the ling, I don't know and ' nobody couldn't tell ' me. But I feel pretty sure her instinct would teach her to do it all right. But, Jack, let's go on ; we mustn't loiter." So on they went, finding two more reed sparrows' nests, and a sedge-bird's ; three water hens' and a dabchick's, besides noticing what they felt sure was a coot's nest, only too far out for them to ascertain. In about half an hour they reached a stream, 186 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. running into the river in such a direction that they had no doubt it must come from the Mere. Striking up it, they proceeded through a succession of small thickets, alternating here and there with boggy bits, set thick with tussocks of coarse herbage on ^wflsf-pedestals three feet high or more. They now speedily reached the Mere, and found that the side they had come upon answered Miss Graham's description accurately enough. Jack descried the buck-bean instantly ; and in the somewhat deeper water just beyond. Bob recog- nised a luxuriant growth of the lutomus. His trousers were very soon rolled up in orthodox style, and himself, spade in hand, selecting half a dozen of the finest plants. He had succeeded in raising two with capital roots, and was intent on a third, which grew at a little distance from the spot at which he had got the two now safe in his cousin's charge. Suddenly his eye lit upon a considerable mass of decaying weed among the water herbage. " Ah I" he said to himself, " a dabchick's nest, no doubt. However, I may as well look in." To his exceeding surprise and delight the seven eggs he saw were clearly not dabchick's eggs, and as clearly belonged to some small duck; almost certainly, he thought, to a teal. He was nut long in com- municating his discovery to Jack, and his con- cluding words were, " I'll bring you one to see, old An unlikely place for a Duck's Nest. p. 186 AN UNEXPECTED SALUTATION. 187 fellow ; but I must put it back again, you know. I don't think we have any right to take such eggs as that without Mr. Forster's leave." So he got up two more plants of the rush and came with them and an egg to Jack. Jack admired the egg and his cousin's right principle, equally; and presently gave him back the egg, though with a sort of groan over its departing excellences ; contenting himself with ejaculating, " I wish we had asked Miss Graham if we might take any eggs we found here." Bob by this time had almost reached the nest with the egg he wished to replace ; when, all at once, he caught the sound of a man's voice address- ing his cousin behind him. Jack jumped most uncomfortably, as the tones sounded almost close to his ear, though it wasn't by any means a disagreeably sounding voice. " Then you are Miss Graham's two young friends, whom she has commissioned to get some plants of the flowering rush and the buck-bean ?" Collecting his scattered wits, Jack made answer " Yes, sir ; it's me and my cousin ; and these plants are for Miss Graham/' " And pray, what's ' meV name and what's my 'cousin's'?" Jack couldn't help a grin at the form of the question, and replied 188 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. " I'm John Graves Edwards, and my cousin is " is Bob Benson, at your service, sir," cried Bob himself, as he came with his bare, dripping legs, to take his part in the colloquy. f( Well, Master ' Bob Benson, at my service/ I had a note from Miss Graham to say you would very likely be here about this time, and so I came to see you got what you wanted for her. She's my god-daughter, and a great favourite of mine." " I should think so," said Bob to himself. Mr. Forster caught the motion of his lips though, and answered it ; "And so she is of yours, is she? Well, Fm not inclined to quarrel with you on that account. Where's your teal's egg?" " In the nest, sir." " What ! put in because you saw me coming ?" " No, sir," said Bob, quickly, but still not dis- respectfully, "but put back because we had no right to take it." " Well, Master Bob Benson, act on that principle all your life long, and your dearest friends will have the most reason to be proud of you. I heard all that took place, and I am glad to tell you what Miss Graham wouldn't though she might namely, that you are quite welcome to take any eggs you find here, and as many of them as you AN INVITATION. 189 like always excepting game-eggs, of course and either to-day or any other day. And if you have time and inclination to pay an old bachelor a visit, why, the old bachelor will be pleased to see you ; and you have tongues in your heads to ask the way to his house." The boys thanked him, as his hearty kindness deserved, and told him their plans about the wood. He gave them directions as to their route, pointed out to them two plants of not very common occur- rence, which grew close by where they were standing; namely, the golden dock,* and the narrow-leaved marsh speedwell, f and then left them to their own devices. Two of the teal's eggs, now, were soon safely packed ; six fine plants of butomus, and as many of buckbean carefully packed in an envelope of flags, strengthened with a couple of stiff twigs, and securely bound round with string brought on purpose; specimens also of the golden dock and veronica were added ; and then they trudged briskly off towards the Crag woods. What befel in the course of their further walk must be related in another chapter. * Tluraex maritimua. t Veronica scutellata. . CHAPTEK IX. Chilton Mere and Crags Bittern's Cry Otters at Play The Bitterns 'flushed' and their Nest found Herons prove themselves clever Fishers A Clinib The Crag reached at last Bird occupants Jackdaws', Kestrels', and Turtle- doves' Nests. BUT their walk towards the wood was not destined to be accomplished without interruption. They had not gone rifty yards, before a sudden, powerful, hollow-sounding 1 noise fell upon their ears, and stopped them at the same instant, as if by mutual consent. " What was it?" cried Jack, " A bull?" "No, I think not/' replied Bob; "I never heard a bull that made a bellowing quite like that. I wish we had'nt been running so, we should have heard it a deal better." Jack could not quite divest himself of the idea of a bull ; an animal which is much more of a bug- bear to a town-bred boy than to his country cousin, though often bad enough to the latter. Bob, however, remained quite still, listening intently, in the hope of again hearing the sounds which had arrested them. Nor did he listen in vain. Once A STARTLING BELLOW. 191 more they boomed through the air ; quite hollow dismally so, Jack's uneasy fancy made him think them something like the broken bellow of a bull, but more solemn in their roar, like a great bass pipe in an organ ; and made more of than might have been the case otherwise, by the deep reverbe- rations from the woods and rocky scar above them. Jack's face grew quite pale : not that he was a coward ; anything but that : but that the strange, tremulous, hollow, interrupted roar affected his imagination with strange impressiveness. " What can it be, Bob ?" he whispered, almost hissed out. " Well, I never heard it before ; but I can give a good guess what it is. I believe it's a bittern. And if it is, there's a nest somewhere in this marsh, as sure as your name's Jack Edwards. It would never be bellowing like that, this time o' day, without. What's o'clock, old fellow ?" for Jack had had a capital double-cased watch given him last holidays. " Just three, Bob. Why do you ask ?" " Only to see what time we have on hand. The Doctor gave us till half-past six, you know. We must allow ourselves a good hour and half to get home ; that's certain. Then we've got two hours good. I vote we go and look for this old bittern. What d'ye say, Jack?" 192 PLAY-HOUKS AND HALF-HOLIDA\S. " Oh ! yes ; Bob, I should so like to see one alive and flying. Do you think we shall see him ?" ' ' Can't say, my lad ; maybe we may, and maybe we mayn't, as old Hume says. But we can look. But they ain't easy chaps to get to fly, I've heard. I have a sort of notion it's over in that bed of reeds; rut it's the hardest sound I ever heard, to tell where it comes from." So the two lads descended the course of the brook, in order to find a place at which they might be able to get over, so as to coast round the other side of the Mere. It was very difficult to find a good piece of dry ground from which to spring ; and in the search they retraced their steps nearly to the river, silently but speedily. A considerable angle in the stream, as they drew near, exposed to their view a narrow sheet of water of some length, and Jack as he threw his eye over it caught Bob by the arm, with a low 'hush !' and dragged him down into a stooping posture. " What is it ?" whispered Bob. "I don't know/' returned the other; "I saw something getting out of the water, I think, on to the bank. It didn't look like a bird ; I think it must be an otter." Bob raised his head quietly, and saw the object about fifty yards from them, on the opposite bank. An otter it was, past doubt. There was a beautiful OTTER LOVE-MAKING. 193 screen of flags and young reeds on the hither bank, to which they crept as noiselessly as possible ; and then, just peering amid the tops of the reeds, they saw him, not as they had rather anticipated, occu- pied in discussing a newly captured fish for it was not his dinner hour but sitting quietly on the bank, merely moving his head gently every now and then. In a minute or so he dipped into the water again, so noiselessly, and making so very little commotion in the water : Jack said afterwards the idea raised in his mind by the performance was that he went in ' oilily' or ' soapily' ; he ( slipped' in so wonderfully. Then they saw him swimming gently along, just as if intending to display his movements and person for their satisfaction ; and then, a few seconds after, they saw his mate who had been sitting quite quietly all the time on a tree root not two feet from where he had rested on the bank join him in his swim. And now they began to play and sport together, swimming in rings, pursuing one another sometimes at, and sometimes beneath the surface diving and swim- ming with astonishing rapidity ; and then again appearing to caress one another. The scene lasted nearly five minutes, after which the lads saw them both go, somewhat hastily, towards the root on which the female (as they supposed) had been 194 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. sitting; and close to it, first one, and then the other disappeared. " A courting scene, Jack, as sure as sure. We are in luck to-day ; blest if we ain't. Their ' hold' must be somewhere near where we saw them cut their lucky. Now for a jump, old chap. We can manage it here." Throwing over the several articles they carried the egg-case was slung over by a string, Bob rais- ing himself on a tree stump to do it, so as to let it reach the other side quite lightly a couple of suc- cessful leaps carried them both safely over, and they proceeded silently and cautiously along in the direction of the bed of reeds Bob had pointed to as the probable hiding-place of the bittern. As luck would have it, his booming note came pealing up through the air a third time ; and Bob felt confi- dent, as the sound just commenced, that he was right in his suspicions ; though, a moment after, the sound wavered and varied so much as to the apparent place of its origin, that any attempt at guessing whence it rose became strangely futile. So they walked on till they reached the corner of the reed bed, which was not of any great size ; though quite sufficiently thick when the reeds were fully grown up. Stopping now, they shouted as loud as they could, at the same time flinging three or four heavy sticks into the reeds. Their delight HUNT FOR THE BITTERN'S NEST. 195 may be imagined when they saw first one and then another of the beautifully plumaged birds they hoped, rather than expected to see, flap heavily up from the covert and go off in slow, dull, laborious, flagging flight, to the other side of the Mere, and drop again into the covert there afforded by a very wide bed of flags, and reeds, and sedges. " I say, Jack, if we don't look in here for a nest, we deserve to be licked. Fll go never you mind. Take my shoes and stockings off? no, no. It can't be done at the price. I shall want all the protection my old cords will give me, among those dead reeds and these sharp-edged leaves of the living ones. I don't mind a bit of a wetting." So in he went. A coot's nest with two eggs was soon found and passed untouched. Three old reed- warblers' nests he saw too. Then a new one, with one egg only. But no bittern's nest. Jack kept moving on as his cousin did, until at last Bob had " beaten" two-thirds of the reed-bed thoroughly, and in a few minutes more would emerge at the other end of it. Between that end and Jack intervened a boggy place with lots of high tumps or tussocks in it, such as they had seen along the brook-edge. Jack walked in among these, and sat down first on one and then on another, in mere idleness or lack of purpose ; shifting his seat, as if trying for the easiest. lu 196 I>LAY. -HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. this way he had gone twenty or twenty-five feet from the dry ground, getting over shoe, however, three or four times during his progress, in the wet, spongy, peaty soil. He was just about seating himself again, nearly opposite the point at which he expected his cousin to emerge, when, on the next tump to that selected for the seat he was going to take, he saw something which made him forget everything else. " Bob," he screamed, rather than shouted, " Bob, I say ! Bob, come here ! Here ! ! Here ! ! Quick ! Oh ! Bob, do come quick !" Bob, fancying something had happened to his cousin a viper bite was the prominent thing in his idea rushed through the reeds with all the force and speed he was capable of nearly falling twice till he got near enough to the edge to see Jack with his face to him, intense eagerness in his eyes and countenance, pointing to the object which had so excited him, and to hear him cry the moment he saw Bob clear of the covert " Oh ! Bob, I do believe it's the nest, after all." There was a quantity of sedge, small sticks, reeds, with a sort of pretence at a lining of the down of the reed-flower, and in it it was slightly shallow, and that was all that could be said lay four light-brown (or dun) coloured eggs. Bob hugged his cousin in his ecstasy, and his wet, muddy SUCCESSFUL. 197 trousers communicated a part of their moisture and mud to Jack's; while Jack's bog-smirched shoes and legs were not willing to be utterly un- grateful or selfish. Two of the four eggs were most carefully placed in the case, and a brisk retreat to the brook com- menced, the transit of which was easily accomplished from their present side by the aid of a leaning alder ; and once more their steps were directed to the Crag and its woods. They thought it most prudent to take the route described to them by Mr. Forster, and so came once more in sight of the Mere, near where they had found the teal's nest. Stopping for a moment to. recover their wind, and looking out over the sheet of water, with the tree-edged banks of the river showing about half a mile beyond it to the left, and with several clumps of dark foliaged wood on its right shore in advance of them, these again backed by a steepish, scrub-covered bank of no great height, while out in front of them, there was only water with its background of reeds and willow-bushes to be seen, Bob's keen eye noticed three objects, in flight and apparently approaching. A moment's observation enabled him to pronounce them to be herons, and he had no doubt what their errand was at that hour of the afternoon. Bidding Jack keep close they were almost close to the trunk of a large sized alder where they had 198 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. stopped they watched the heavy flight of the three Trankies' as they continued to advance. On they came and once the loud hoarse horn- like 'cronk.' was heard and sailing, or rather flapping, with noiseless wing, round to the rear of the very tree beneath which the boys stood, two out of the three wheeled round again, and lit at the very edge of the Mere, within twenty yards of the cousins. They then stalked solemnly in amid the bog-beans and low sedges till they came into the clear water beyond, the plants of the butomus, and the higher and thicker growth of water-plants being all to the right of them : and there they rested, thigh-deep in the water, with their necks drawn up and back over their backs in a curve, and their heads brought somewhat forward and down- ward, so as to be ready to strike the instant any fish unwarily approached within reach. Two minutes, three minutes passed, and then the one most to the left made a lightning-like dash with his bill into the water, and as he withdrew it, the boys just caught a glimpse of a shiny, white object between his mandibles as he threw his head up to swallow his ' take/ Almost at the same instant his companion went through precisely the same evolutions. Three minutes more, and the latter seized a fish the boys saw by its red fins and pearly sides that it was a roach, of seven or eight Herons feeding. p. i 'OLD FKANKY' ' SPEARS ' AN EEL. 199 inches long and disposed of it down its capacious gullet, though much less summarily than in the case of the small one last taken. The next capture was made by the other bird. The boys with intense interest observed that, after darting his head into the water as before, he did not imme- diately withdraw it. On the contrary, the fish he had struck seemed to be powerful enough, not only to give him a good deal of trouble, but even to make it doubtful which way the struggle would terminate. At last however it seemed to them after the lapse of a full minute he reared up his head again, and then the spectators saw that he had got hold of an eel : he was holding it with the powerful gripe of his beak just behind the head ; and they saw too, that the eel was a large one, over a pound weight they thought, and writhed and struggled greatly in its efforts to escape. The heron, how- ever, with outstretched neck, held him firmly, and coolly began to walk out of the water with his victim. Arrived at the dry edge, the eel was either dropped or laid down ; neither Bob nor Jack could tell which exactly: and then, the heron, holding the twisting creature firmly with one foot, administered three or four hearty pecks about its head, and one or two shakings, which seemed to confound (probably stunned or disabled,) the eel no little, for its writhings and twistings were seen 200 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. to be very considerably less lively than before. So the heron took it up again in his bill, by the head, and then he straightway threw his own head up and back in the commencing effort of swallowing it. At this moment Bob sneezed for his life he could not help it and the unwonted sound had the immediate effect of bringing- the drama that was being enacted by the herons to a premature close. Both birds took the alarm, and the one that was dealing with the eel was so confounded at finding himself in such unexpected proximity to a couple of unquestionable ' humans/ that he dropped his eel as he took flight, and left it a prey for his disturbers. And then they saw that it was no joke for a finny dweller in the waters to come within reach of such a deadly weapon as a heron's beak shafted on to a heron's neck. There seemed good reason to believe that the first blow had completely transfixed the neck of the eel ; and the other injuries about the neck and adjacent parts were neither few nor light. Bob was most disappointed at having stayed pro- ceedings in the way he had so unintentionally done, because he had scarcely considered it pos- sible that a heron could swallow such a morsel at a single gulp as the eel he now held in his hand ; but ' seeing/ to him, would have been ' believing/ he said rather laughingly to Jack. - A STIFFISH CLIMB. 201 The two lads decided to leave the eel where the heron had dropped it, principally on account of the difficulty of stowage ; and they had little doubt it would be finally disposed of by some other hungry heron before nightfall. And now they set them- selves in real earnest to reach the wood they were bound for. Little more than half-a-mile brought them to the entrance named by Mr. Forster ; and in ten minutes more they found themselves climb- ing over a wonderfully rugged and broken surface. Rocks of all shapes and sizes; some of them almost completely mounded up at their sides by annual deposits of leaves, deceased fern-growth, decaying roots, and boughs of trees ; others still presenting their flanks visible as on the first day after their fall; all of them covered with green, luxuriant mosses, and with a dense growth of ferns male fern and branched shield fern the principal ones with plenty of tree-growth all round and above them ; these were what our explorers had to climb over as best they could, and that for many a toilsome yard of ascent, before they could reach the foot of the crags they had so often seen from a distance, and as often coveted to visit. Here and there a mass of twenty-five or thirty feet in length and half as much in breadth and depth, had fallen forward, crushing down, as it seemed, other huge, projecting rock-masses by its vast weight and im- 202 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. pulse, in such a way as to leave yawning chasms and rifts, big enough to admit ten or twelve or twenty people. In another place, a real cavern opened its gloomy -looking portal to their admiring gaze. Going up to its entrance, perhaps one of them would find himself suddenly sinking in a rift, which had passed unnoticed by him from having been concealed by a kind of broad-bladed carex which grew all about in astonishing luxuriance and quantity. Each step, almost, brought them upon some new object of interest. Here it was a tuft of oreopteris, the fronds partly expanded, partly pre- senting the singularly beautiful whorl of the bud- ding or growing frond. There it was a quantity of chrysosplenium; both oppositifolium and aUerni- folium being abundant where a soaking of water found its way to the surface in the course of its passage from the uplands above to the vale be- neath. Then again, they came into beds of the enchanter's nightshade ; and a moment after, some new t folly/ built up by Dame Nature in some fro- licsome mood, when huge rocks were the materials she chose to employ. A few steps now brought them out of the shade and concealment afforded by the trees ; and at once a scene replete with new interest was unfolded be- fore them. Three jays went flitting and scream- ing out of the stunted, quaint-growing trees which BELOW THE CRAGS. 203 found precarious root-hold and support in the cre- vices at the summit of the crags, thirty or forty feet above the rock-bestrewed platform, which in point of height was about on a level with the highest branches of the wood below. Scores of starlings .fled from the same trees, and from the crevices of the rocks, with their stridulous note or semi- screech of disapprobation. Jackdaws, almost in hundreds, flew in and out of the trees and holes, alighting again at a safe distance, chat- tering and anathematizing the intruders in the choicest ( ThievesMatin' and ( Billingsgate ' in use among the Pyet family. Six or seven ringdoves, with clanging wing, flew from the tree-tops below, startled by the unusual commotion above; and last, but not least, two pairs of kestrels, with their steady, self-dependent flight, and shrill laugh-like cry, added their share to the ornithological interest of the scene. Bob was determined to have some oological memento of their visit to Chilton Crags; and, handing over egg-box and spade to Jack who was to make his way along the main platform, or rather broad ledge, at the foot of the precipitous rocks, as well as he could ; sometimes close to the rocky wall, sometimes ever so far below it the elder boy proceeded to work up and along the cliff itself, wherever steps and ledges could be 204 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. found to afford resting-places to his feet, and a hold for his hands. Soon he found himself in an angle between two faces of rock, with a crevice at the back nearly wide enough to admit his body. Out of this opened lateral fissures, from two of which fragments of sticks (very numerous in one instance), and locks of wool depending, testified very intelligibly to the existence of a jackdaw's nest perhaps several more than just one only in the said crevices. Bob was able, by the employ- ment of rather goat-like activity and cat-like powers of prehension to obtain standing ground so near as to permit him to insert his arm, and even shoulder, into the nest-containing spaces. But spare sticks and wool were all that he could reach ; and would have still been all that he could reach had his arm been twice as long. Determined not to be beat, he bethought him of cutting a stick with a fork at one end and hook at the other. The former he must twist into the material of the nest, or pass the latter beyond the whole fabric, and, either way, pull it with its egg contents out. But how to get down ? Getting up was one thing, and practicable enough. Getting down quite another; though practicable enough, too, in the disagreeable sense of ' coming down by the run/ However, digging his fingers into a little soil formed and fastened by a defunct tuft of fern, he let himself WHERE'S THE KESTREL'S NEST? 205 down safely over the difficult part, got down into the wood below, and soon cut himself the imple- ment he desiderated. Armed with this, he re- ascended, sometimes pushing it up before him, and other times pulling it up after him, till he reached his vantage-ground again; and then he was re- warded by getting three fresh laid Jackdaw's eggs. One he carried down in his mouth; the other two he laid at his feet till he had effected a por- tion of the descent ; and so on, till he stood safe by Jack again. But he stayed only long enough to put the eggs safely into the egg-box, and then re-ascended ; in the hope though it was so faint, he hardly con- fessed it even to himself of making out where one or both pairs of kestrels had built. He had fixed in his own mind on what might be the locality of one nest, and he was resolved to ascertain if it were so or not ; that is, if it should seem at all practicable on a nearer approach. The place in question was a projecting, pillar-like mass or buttress of rock, with a bare ledge at the top, about eight feet below the general summit of the whole crag. He soon made his way to the foot of this buttress, and he thought as he stood below, that, with Jack's help, he could reach what seemed to be a living tree-root, that had straggled, amid these inhospitable rocks, some twenty feet from 206 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. the stem it belonged to, and appeared to have been lately laid bare by the fall of some part of the rock surface. Calling Jack up to him, and explaining to him his plans, and what he (Jack) was to do if he saw him in a fix, he began the ascent. The root was reached, and proved to be tough and sound, and strong enough to support twenty times his weight without straining. With this help, and that of the unevennesses and crevices of the rock, he had little difficulty in achieving the ascent. Once at the top of the buttress, he had a space of three feet long by two feet broad to rest on. A moment's pause he allowed himself to recover breath, and then began a search for the expected kestrel's nest. He felt sure, before he reached the summit, that his suspicions were well-founded, on account of the uneasiness and repeated cries of one of the two beautiful hawks who kept flying about, just out of gun-shot. And truly, there it was, on a receding ledge just above the broad ledge he stood on, in what once had been apparently a jackdaw's nest ; the materials and style of building being just such as those affected by the jackdaw. There were three eggs in it, and Bob took them all. The next thing was, how to get up higher yet, for getting down was not to be thought of: it would only end one way. He saw at once he could not do it without help. He saw, too, that SAFE UP. 207 a little help would do ; and that if Jack were above, he could stand on, or sit astride of a tree that grew out horizontally, about two feet below the very summit, and thence, by holding on to one end of the hooked stick he (Bob) had cut awhile since for the jackdaw's nest, give him just the purchase he wanted. But Jack was below, not above. So Bob scanned the face of the cliff which lay fairly exposed to his view for a good many yards, and saw about fifteen paces further on a sort of descending rift, sloping a good deal back and sideways, and crossed by a root or small tree trunk at the only difficult point, and up which a much less active fellow than Jack would have no great difficulty in winning his way. Imparting his observations and instructions to Jack accord- ingly, he soon had the satisfaction of seeing him manage the ascent in capital style ; a minute after, of tying his handkerchief, with the kestrel eggs in it, to a string Jack let down on purpose ; and then lastly, of grasping the hook end of a strong five foot stick cut by his cousin above, and firmly held by him, as he stood fast on the tree trunk noticed by Bob. With this aid the latter, in about half a minute, had fast hold of the tree himself; and, on Jack withdrawing his foot to make room for him, swung himself up, and stood safe by his cousin's side above. Oh ! what a glorious scene they looked down 208 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. upon ! The wood at their feet, the Wassett below, in front ; the Leven, with the marsh and the frequent trees on their right ; Elmdon a little to the left ; the Grove, Wrilton Castle and Park fully to their left ; Turley heights and the Beacon, with Turley wood and the Fox-spinny opposite ; and the trout streams they knew so well cutting their rapid way downwards ; and all with the un- speakable beauty shed over such scenery by a brightly shining sun with a few fleecy clouds floating dreamily along, and casting broad tran- sparent shadows over hillside and valley, purple moor and green meadow. Beautiful indeed ! That one look, down and out and on each side, amply repaid all the toils and strivings of the ascent. Bob, enjoying it all to the uttermost as he did most truly and heartily was much too little of a dreamer to forget the practical view of things also ; and he speedily waked Jack out of his reverie of quiet admiration and enjoyment, with his brisk " Now, Jack, old fellow, down again ; up with our traps, and off for Elmdon in quick stick. I see the road we must take." So down they went, where Jack had ascended the latter barking an elbow rather severely in the descent, through an unlucky step, but little heed- ing it and equipping themselves quickly, started TURTLE-DOVE'S NEST. 209 off, clambering downwards over fern-covered, moss- grown-rocks, as in their upward progress. Soon they reached a glade in the wood, which Bob had seen from above would conduct them into a road- way which traversed it in the Elmdon direction. Just as they were entering the glade, a bird of some size flew out of a holly-tree. Jack caught sight of it, and pronounced it to be a dove, but a very small one : a turtle-dove then, Bob concluded. Looking up into the tree, at no great height above their heads, they saw a very loosely constructed platform of sticks and twigs ; and Bob, thrusting himself up with some difficulty, and after two or three fruitless efforts, among the numerous branches and prickly leaves, had the felicity of finding that they had not only thus accidentally lit upon a turtle-dove's nest, but that the said nest contained its full complement of two small, white, oval dove's eggs. These were soon transferred to the case, and the homeward march resumed. The roadway was reached, and then they set their faces for a cross-road which ran into the London road, about two miles and a half from Elmdon ; and once in that cross-road, they knew footpaths across the fields which would shorten their walk by nearly a mile. Jack's watch showed them that they had very nearly their hour and a half available still ; and so they took it more gently, but still anything 210 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. but saunteringly. They had now but one anxiety, and that was about their plants for Miss Graham. They had been packed carefully, and with abundance of wet moss about their roots : but if the roots should get too dry in their study ! Should they ask Dr. Noble to take charge of them, or what? However, on reaching the school-gates their anxiety was converted into a very different feeling, for waiting there they saw the familiar ' Buttons' on the familiar pony, and handing over their botanical treasures to him, they hastened to shift and clean themselves, and to enter their appearance in school at half-past six o'clock. CHAPTER X. Examination for Removes The Cousins not Floored Off for the Easter Holidays Conisthorpe Lodge Fishing Expedi- tion to Croxteth Mere A Heavy Drive Sand -drifts Knapping Gun-flints The Devil's Punch-bowl Croxteth Mere, Boat, and Piscatory Proceedings. THURSDAY morning came wonderfully soon after Wednesday evening to Bob and his cousin, well- tired as they were with their Chilton Crag expe- dition, its runnings, and clamberings, and climb - ings ; and Thursday morning, at nine o'clock, was to see every boy belonging to the three upper classes in his place in school, prepared to undergo a search- ing examination in the class-work of the previous two months, and with a view to the great annual re- arrangement of the classes at Easter. Bob and Jack had both worked well in school-hours, and had besides taken a good deal of pains to make themselves masters of what was ordinarily called, and dealt with as, ' cram' by most of their class- fellows : something, that is, which was to be got up for a temporary purpose,, and so got up, might 212 PLAY-HOUES AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. be let slip after the f purpose' had ceased to be, and forgotten ; the sooner the better. Bob had asked for explanation more than once, for himself and Jack, of the second master ; and once., at least, for information as to where he could get more and fuller detail on matters collateral to the particular subject of his inquiry. Mr. Patten had according to a standing request of the head master's in all such cases mentioned this circumstance to Dr. Noble, and the result was that Bob and Jack had both been summoned to the Doctor's study, and had there undergone a kind of friendly examination, the object of which was to enable the examiner to ascertain, not what they knew already, nor exactly what they did not know, but rather what they wanted to know, and how far their want was in- clining them in a right or useful direction. And they had gone away with a couple of the Doctor's books under their arms, with sundry paper marks containing pencil directions as to what parts might be read, in the head master's own handwriting; and these books had been after most careful cover- ing as carefully and attentively read by the two boys together, and then more than once replaced by fresh volumes. Their ordinary class-work had been thoroughly well done, and they knew they were l well up' in all routine work. But it was yet to be proved whether, and how far they were IN FOR EXAMINATION. 213 able to go beyond the limits- of mere ' book-work.' Jack, on taking his seat this Thursday morning was rather despondent, Bob not very confident ; and there were sad thumpings of heart in eaoh of their breasts as they sat down before the little pile of small-sized quarto paper laid out for each boy^s use, while many of their class-fellows seemed to be comparatively but little concerned. But, as soon as the paper of questions was handed round, and their first hurried glance showed them three or four questions they knew all about, and a cooler and more deliberate re-perusal made it evident that there was hardly one question in the paper that they could not either answer in detail or make a fair ' shy' at ; after one cheerful look in each other's faces, they set to work arid speedily found that all that head plenishing, which had seemed such a hopeless muddle of nothing-in-particular and un- profitableness three minutes before, was shaping itself for expression and crowding on their pens much faster than they could write it. They were to have an hour and a half for the paper, and then half-an-hour more for prose composition; leaving about three quarters of an hour for viva voce con- struing and examination. Each boy besides, in Bob's class and the one above, who chose, was to produce, either a copy of verses, or an essay on subjects given out by the Doctor at the beginning 214 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. of the half-year. These papers indeed, had already been given in ; and, if time would permit, the re- sult was to be made known at the close of the exa- mination. The general issue of the examination itself would not be known till after the Easter holidays were over. Bob's neat handwriting, when the clock struck ten and his class was summoned for their viva voce ordeal, already covered five sides and half a sixth, and Jack had done rather more in apparent quan- tity, but less in reality ; inasmuch as his writing, especially when done in haste, was rather strag- gling, and far less neat than Bob's. And now twenty-seven boys, several of them a year older than Bob, and two or three some months younger than Jack, were seated in two slightly curving rows, the hinder row on a raised bench, in front of Dr. Noble and Mr. Patten. The latter called up boy after boy to the table at which the masters sat, and gave him his appointed ten or twelve lines to construe ; the Doctor making notes, as each boy proceeded, on a long sheet of paper with the names of the whole class written upon it. The whole pro- ceeding went on very quietly. If a boy construed fluently he was suffered to go on, right or wrong ; if he hesitated once, the wanting word was supplied ; if twice, he was motioned, or told, to make way for his successor who stood at his elbow ready. The UP TO THE MARK. 215 entire class had been up in less than half-an-hour. Then seven or eight of those who had done the best were recalled, and set to construe those por- tions over which the worst failures had occurred, Bob and Jack were both in the number. And then came the questioning ; most of it from the lips of the Doctor, and often suggested by the notes against the several names. Bob and his cousin's ' reading' was now fairly pitted against the ( cram' of certain other boys. The questions soon became limited to about ten, who were moved out, one at a time, from different parts of the class, till they were all assembled together on the upper half of tho, front form. Five or six of these, again, soon tailed off under the testing questions put by Dr, Noble. Still Bob and Jack were happy enough to keep up : while it was abundantly clear that neither Bob, nor any other boy in the class, was Jack's equal in in- ferential deductions, or the capacity of getting a real good mind-picture of any subject. In down- right retention of matter of fact, however, whether in history, elementary philology, geography, or the like, Bob was inferior to none. The examina- tion now soon came to a close, and Dr. Noble said a few words to the assembled class before dismiss- ing them : "As a class you have done well, and to my satisfaction. Several among you, individually, 216 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. might, and could have done better, and I do not the least doubt that several of those will yet do better. Some of you have done exceedingly well." Here he read out the names of eleven boys who " all deserved commendation," he said ; and then he proceeded, "But I shall neither be satisfying myself nor doing you justice, if I do not select four or five among you for specific and individual approbation. You Benson, and you Thompson, Edwards also, and Birks and Metcalf, have all both construed and answered in such a way, as to do yourselves great credit and give me almost unmingled satisfaction. I have never before met with, in the annual examinations of this class, a greater amount of solid, well-arranged information, independently, I mean, of your most creditable acquaintance with the actual subject of examination and collateral to it, than in you three Benson, Thompson, and Edwards ; and it is only fair to you, Edwards, to say before the whole class, that you have answered three questions to-day in a manner that would have done no discredit to the most advanced scholar ever produced in Elmdon school. The five whose names I have mentioned, I think I may certainly venture to predict, will, on re-assem- bling, take their remove. I cannot of course say until I have seen all your papers, how many more . You may go." STILL AT WORK. 217 Bob and his cousin found a hand each for Thompson, as they went out all three together : "That's right, old fellow/' said Bob to the latter, in the short transit to the school. " How are you doing with the paper ?" " Oh ! not very well, I doubt. I floored myself rather by answering the fifth question about the contemporary Greek history, you know half wrong before I found out my blunder. And I lost time, and heart too, I'm afraid. How've you done ?" " Well, I hope, pretty fair. I haven't had time to look it over. But I mean to save a few minutes for that. I think it will be better than driving on at more. I wish you luck, old fellow." To work they went again, and, about ten minutes or so before the time of giving up the MS. papers, Bob, on finishing a question having only left two untouched began to revise ; hastily, it is true, but still so as to enable himself to make one correction where he had left out a word or two, which omission made him say just the opposite of what he meant ; another, where the sense from the words employed was altogether obscure, and a third where a glaring mis-state- ment of a matter of fact had got in : besides several merely verbal alterations. He had looked all over but about a page and a half, when time was up. The papers, neatly folded and endorsed, 218 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. were then given up, and the subject for composition announced; ' Roman Civilization in Britain, and its effects.' In the course of their class work with the Doctor, he had given a series of little five- minute lectures on this subject, illustrative of the text of their lesson. Jack had been so delighted with them that he had made notes as soon after- wards as possible, and had then read these notes over to Bob, to see if his recollection were tolerably exact. Their eyes met as the ' Subject' was given out by Mr. Patten; and after that, they never looked up again till the clock struck twelve. Jack had paused for a minute or two at first, but had by this time completed his treatise, all but a few lines, while Bob was still working along for his life, with almost as much more to say as he had written already. At one o'clock they were to start by train for Conisthorpe Lodge, Bob's uncle's, and they expected to arrive at the station at which they had to get out, about 3.30 : and thence there was a drive of four miles to their destination. "Well, Jack, old fellow," said Bob, after all preparations were completed, and they had par- taken of the half-lunch, half-dinner, provided for the boys who were going away all, that is, except about twenty-five, who had no friends living sufficiently near, or possibly none in England COMPARING NOTES. 219 " well, Jack, old fellow, how have you come on?" " Well, Bob, I think I have done famously about the Civilization." " Why, I was afraid you were nervous, or couldn't recollect, or something ; you stopped so long before you began. But Fm precious glad you think you'll do." "The fact is, Bob, I stopped to consider. I recollected almost all the Doctor told us, and you know one of the books he lent us had a lot about the very same thing in it ; and Fd read that too. And so I said to myself, 'Now, I shall just get into no end of a muddle, if I don't mate up my mind what I want to write ;' and so, I stopped a bit to think, and I worked it nearly all out. Five minutes more, and I should have finished quite/' " By Jove, Jack, you're a brick. Blest if you don't deserve all the Doctor said, and more. Fve made a fine muddle in my paper, after yours ; that I have." " Bob, the Doctor was very kind, and so are you. And I wont say I'm not more pleased than ever I was before, for I am ; and proud, too. But half of it is because it will please 'em at home so much. Bob, I should like Miss Spencer, and Tay toOj to know not about myself, I don't mean that 220 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. but that we both of us have pleased the Doctor, and got our remove. Do you think I might write ?" " I should think so ! And I'll write too ; this very night before I go to bed. But how did you get on in the questions ?" " Oh ! very fairly, I hope. I did nine out of the thirteen ; though one was a ' shy/ and I could not quite make out what the last half of the thir- teenth meant ?" "You didn't try that, Jack !" " Yes, I did. Don't you remember what Dr. Noble said to Sir Cuthbert, talking about a bit of Horace that he had just repeated, that day up on the moor ?" " Hooray, Jack, I do believe you'll be first on the list, or, if not, second." " Don't you begin to chaff, Bob ; I'm too pleased to be able to laugh, much yet." "I'm not chaffing, Jack; indeed I ain't. But I wont be beat, you know, if I can help it. So you look sharp." " Bob, I shall never beat you in ' work ;' though I should like to be more like you in that. Don't I hope old Thompson has done better than he thinks ! It's so sad, his losing his father in that shocking way. And then he's so anxious to give his poor mother all the little comfort as he thinks it that he can. I wish he might be first." THE RESULT. 221 " So do I, Jack. But lie won't. I say, Jack, that chap'll be a soldier ; you see if he isn't. He's very quiet and shut up. But I've seen him, when the fellows were talking about those bloody murders where his poor father was killed ; he frightened me almost, to see such a pale face and such a look on it ! resolute, fierce, almost savage. He's grown five years older since that news came, in his ways. Hullo ! there's the luggage truck. We must be off." And while the troop of light-hearted lads, who were going off by the one o'clock ' down train,'' are running, and leaping, and larking on their way to the station, we will anticipate so far as to say that tne result of the examination altogether was, that Bob stood first and Jack third in the list for remove, Met- calf being second, and Thompson fourth; that Bob's papers were pronounced by Dr. Noble to be such as would have even done credit to any boy in the school; that his composition was good, but wanted conden- sing; that Jack's papers were highly creditable, and his composition admirable; while, in addition to this and his general proficiency in the subjects of examination, the little poem he had sent in for the prize was the .successful one, and deservedly so, as showing an originality of thought, a power of imagination and expression, which could scarcely have been looked for in one so young. But they sped on to Hislop station, little think- 222 PLAY-HOUKS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. ing of the successes which they were to discover, in the course of a week, they had severally achieved. Bob had paid many a visit to his Uncle Charles's before this ; indeed, it was there that the intimacy with the nuthatches had been commenced and so agreeably sustained. Jack had, as may be sur- mised, asked his cousin some scores of questions as to what the place was like ; what sort of people Mr. and Mrs. Charles Benson were ; how many cousins especially how many young-lady cousins Bob had there; whether there was a river, or any nice, large woods ; what birds, not common at Elm- don, might be seen there ; and so on, to the tune of the various changes a tolerably thinking, active- minded schoolboy is so sure to ring. And Bob had answered them as freely as they had been asked. " One boy cousin there was, who was seventeen, and doing well in a very wealthy and influential merchant's office; and three young lady dittos one grown up, one almost grown up, and one two years younger than Jack himself. Jack would be sure to like 'em all ; and as for Fred, he was a regular brick, though he had got to be precious particular now about brushing his hat and always wearing gloves when he went out." Jack's last question had been, " I say, Bob, what shall we do every day ?" " Well, I should say after getting up, and wash- ing and brushing our hair all right, you know, ANTICIPATIONS AND PEOSPECTS. there' d be breakfast to get. And then we could walk in the garden, like good little boys, till lunch. Lunch will take some time getting, and one would have to think of not eating too much, because of dinner " " Hold your bosh, Bob, and tell a fellow right, will you ?" "Well, Jack, if you're so very particular, Fll try. I suppose you'll admit I told you right as far as breakfast " "Hang breakfast, and you too'/' cried Jack, laughing in spite of himself. " See if you say so to-morrow morning, old boy. And what an ungrateful little viper you must be to talk of hanging your affectionate cousin, who's taken such care of you. Oh ! you'd like to punch my head, too, would you ! Well, then, as I should not like you to hurt your knuckles it's precious hard and thick, you know do you remember what I told you about Croxteth Mere ?" " I fancy I do. What about it ?" " Well, if Fred is at home, as I expect he will be till Monday at all events we are about sure to go there for one thing. You know I told you we should want our rods and bottom tackle, any way ; for there's the Thet close to the garden, full of coarse fish, and now and then a whopper of a trout; but at Croxteth one would f go dicky' at 224 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLTDAYS. once with vexation, if he hadn't a fishing- rod." "Why, how many perch was it you caught there one day, Bob ? Wasn't it a hundred and fifty or more ?" "A hundred and thirty -seven perch and thirty- three small tench, Jack, was the score. I never had such fun before." " Shall we go to-morrow, d'ye think?" " Don't know, my boy. Being Good Friday, may be we might go to Church," answered Bob, and then as the train began to slacken its speed, putting his head out, and after a short inspection of the plat- form they were approaching, drawing it in again, he added, " You'd best ask Fred and Uncle about that. They're both here, and there's the old grey mare in the phaeton, too." Bob, as he ceased speaking, rushed out of the door he had got open already drawing down a rebuke from the guard as he did so, for getting out before the train stopped and was trying the fastenings of his cousin's and uncle's arms before Jack had even begun to descend. Then came the introductions; the bearing of Mr. Fred being distantly polite, of Fred's father as hearty and kindly as if Jack was his own boy. "Now, uncle," cried Bob, as soon as the carpet-bags and fishing-rods and basket and other COUSIN FRED. 225 et ceteras had been duly deposited under the front seat, " you get in behind, and do the polite to that nice young gentleman Fve brought to see you, and Fll tool old Sally up to the lodge. Jump up, Fred, my boy, or I shall leave you behind." ' Fred, my boy/ did as he was bid, drily asking his cousin as he did so, " how long it was since he had been licked for too much cheek ?" " Oh, ages !" replied Bob ; " never since yester- day morning, after breakfast. Why ?" " Oh ! I was only thinking a good drubbing before dinner to-day might do you good. I should think you feel as if it would ?" "Yes, precious pity there's nobody to give it me. It'd spoil your gloves, you know. Shaved this morning, Fred ? Ah ! I thought so. You should use Emily Dean's Crinilene. The effect's stunning, Old Pettit says a full pair of whiskers by breakfast-time next day." The remarkable absence of down on Master Fred's cheek had suggested the last question, and Bob saw directly his shot had taken effect. Fred, however, who had been an Elmdonite up to a year and half ago, turned the subject by inquiring par- ticularly about Pettit ; recording a private resolu- tion at the same time, however, that he'd " take it out of Master Bob, somehow or other." The young gentleman, thus menaced, notwith- 226 PLAY -HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. standing went on driving steadily along, and soon got into confidential talk with his companion on divers subjects, from town life to cricket-matches and wild rambles. The arrival at Conisthorpe Lodge was duly and safely effected, and a few minutes of lively talk with his female cousins were spent by Bob. Jack was already thick with Mr. Benson, and Fred began to unbend considerably, when he saw Jack so quiet and unassuming, as well as that he was rather uncomfortable, at first, among so many strangers. Dinner over, the talk took a turn over school matters; and then Bob told the assembled party of the pat-on -the-back Jack had received from their head-master in the morning. This rather made Jack retire into his shell at first; but when he found Bob was passing on to some other topic, and not even glancing at his own share of icvSoe, he could stand it no longer and broke out with "Now, Bob, that isn't fair. Why didn't you tell what the Doctor said to you too ? You know he said as much to you as he did to me, and you deserved it a deal more than I. Why, I should never have tried in earnest, or known how, if it hadn't been for you. It ain't fair, Bob." But Bob only laughed, and went on to tell Fred about the glorious cricket-matches of last year, and how they had licked the Sunbury chaps in one SCHOOL- DOINGS TALK. 22? innings ; and how, moreover, it was considered very uncertain whether Sunbury would venture to challenge Elmdon again this year ; and if not, how Pettit wanted to send a challenge to the Dun- uhester club, to play any eleven of the bachelor members ; and a good deal more of the same sort. Jack was talking now with great readiness to Mr. Benson and his eldest daughter, who had found out his love of antiquarian inquiries ; but still he heard from time to time Bob's voice, telling of cricket feats and cricket aspirations; and, watching his opportunity, while his cousin was absent from the room to fetch something to show Fred, he just gave that young gentleman a brief sketch of the Hor- dern episode, and of Bob's exploits in connexion therewith ; and it was with rather gleeful malice that he heard three or fonr questions propounded to Bob on his return, such as, ' How did Hordern play in the Sunbury match ?' ' If he didn't play, who played in his place?' l You played in the match, Bob? Did you make any score, or catch anybody out ?' Jack tried to look as innocent as he could all the while, but he failed in keeping his countenance any longer, when he saw Bob tele- graphing to him behind Miss Benson's back with a doubled fist, and as fierce a look as his jolly, good-humoured face could be made to assume. The whole party, long before tea-time, were on the 228 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. most friendly footing, and arrangements began to be made for the excursion to Croxteth Mere on the Saturday. Two of the young ladies were quite eager to go too ; and so it was decided that the party would be quite large enough with the addition of Mr. Barrow, the clergyman of Croxteth, and his younger brother, who, as a matter of course, always joined the Bensons in their annual fishing expedition on the Mere. Fred was to drive the grey mare in the dog-cart, with Bob beside him, and the groom behind ; the rest of the party would go in the phaeton. Good Friday passed quietly and happily over. The rest was pleasant to the lads after yesterday's fag and excitement. But the next morning, Bob was at their bed-room window while it was still dim twilight, and there saw enough to convince him that it was going to be a fine day, and to send him contented back to his bed. An eight o'clock breakfast was discussed, which Jack did not wish hanged, if judged by his pro- ceedings with sundry eggs, slices of bacon, dry toast, and muffins : and by a quarter before nine the two vehicles were already proceeding, at a spanking pace, in the direction of the market town of Thetsham. Half-an-hour brought them on to a dead level, where, notwithstanding, the road was very heavy from the depth of sand upon HEAVY DRIVING. 229 it. For nearly four miles they had to toil, at in- tervals, over such heavy ground. On either hand lay a wide, desolate waste ; often, for hundreds of acres together, nothing but sand and flints ; and, in its least desolate portions, only redeemed from utter barrenness by a few stunted furze bushes, a little sparse heath, and a few dry bents, furnishing scanty subsistence to no very great number of rabbits. No hedges made a partition line between this waste and the road ; and before they had fully come upon it, and while, therefore, hedges had been to be seen, as also, when they had quite crossed it, and came into a region of inclosures again, the two visitors were strangely surprised, and indeed mystified, by seeing regular drifts of sand as like drifts of snow as they could be, being really made up of sand sometimes on one side, and sometimes on the other, of the several hedges. In answer to the inquiries they severally put, they were informed that a moderately strong wind always set the sand in motion, and that a very strong one drove it so abundantly and so strongly as to make travelling excessively dis- agreeable, and even painful, to both horse and man. Mr. Benson stated that, on more than one occa- sion, his horse had actually refused to face the drift, again and again; and that he had been obliged to dismount, and, turning his back, shelter 230 PLAT-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. his face the best way he could from the stinging particles. He believed that once he had been fully three hours, though mounted on a good horse, in making the four miles over this so-called warren. Pointing out the great white flints, too, which lay so thickly about, he told Jack that an extensive manufacture in that neighbourhood had utterly passed away ; viz., the manufacture of gun-flints : and he added, that it had been a curious sight to watch the singular dexterity of the flint makers : seated, crosswise, on a bench with a couple of pieces of iron two inches long let into it edgewise, and with two or three hammers of different sizes, half-a-dozen blows, some with a large, some with a smaller hammer the flint flakes being struck on the edge of the iron, with a peculiar knack pro- duced a flint, perfect in its edges, and with a faci- lity that bordered on the marvellous. The great flint nodules, as big as a child's head, were split into slices of any required thickness, as if by the mere will of the workman ; so little force did he seem to apply ; and then, these slices were just as easily subdivided into smaller fragments, still of regular form ; and then, these again into flakes of different sizes, according to quality and style of gun-flint desiderated. There was one old man, he believed, still left in Thetsham who made a few occa- sionally ; but it had long been, f Caps is in, and flints is out/ THE DEVIL'S PUNCH-BOWL. 231. Once over the warren, they were not long in reaching Thetsham. Mr. Barrow was at home and disengaged, and in five minutes equipped, and himself on the hind seat of the dogcart, his brother being put on board the other vehicle. They drove to the well-known farmhouse at Croxteth, and left the groom in charge of the horses and to bring on the hampers by-and-bye ; while the party proceeded, in divers groups, in the direction of the Mere. Proceeding up some undu- lating, rather than hilly swells for about a mile, they came in sight of the Mere, scarcely half a mile distant. It was a large sheet of water in an irregular oval depression, appearing even at that distance to grow deeper from its edge all round, very gradually indeed. Bob and Jack were eager to get down to its margin, but Miss Benson called to Jack and told him there was a very curious place up a little height on their right hand, which was one of the ' lions' of Croxteth. Jack told Bob, and was whispered to by Fred to ask his sister what was the name of the place. Jack did so, very innocently; and Miss Benson, who saw the man- oeuvre and acknowledged it by threatening her brother with her parasol, told the inquirer without hesitation that it was generally called c the Devil's punchbowl/ The young people soon reached the place so designated, and truly it was worth turning a little aside to see. Ii was, evidently, a perfectly 232 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. natural depression, like a hollow and rather obtuse cone in shape ; not less than seventy or eighty feet in its widest diameter ; and apparently thirty or thirty-five in depth. Short herbage clothed it within and without. It was perfectly dry, and utterly devoid of any external appearance of even so much as knowing what rock was. None of the party present could offer any explanation of its origin. It was not artificial, that was tolerably certain ; almost equally so, that it was not volcanic. " And if," said Mr. Barrow, very seriously, " the origin was what the country name intimates at least, if the user was also the maker why, he must have been a ' thirsty souT with a vengeance, and have put old King Cole to the blush as a mere milksop." The boys laughed*, and ran down the hill to get to the Mere without further delay. Their rods were together and their lines arranged before the seniors, with the key of the boat, arrived. The boat, or what by courtesy was styled such for, in truth, it resembled a misbegotten lighter, stunted in its infancy, more than anything else was soon emptied of the score or two of pailfuls of water it contained, was then fully manned, and poled off some hundred yards, and then the makeshift anchor let drop. And now the chief proceedings of the day commenced. Mr. Barrow had a rod, his brother had a rod, Jack and Fred had each one, the younger Miss Benson had one, and Bob had Fishing Croxteth Mere. p. 233 'FIRST FISH.' 233 two j though one the pet fly-rod was still in its case. There was plenty of room for them all in that huge flat, which was almost as steady, from its great solidity, as a barn floor. Bob baited his little cousin's hook and then his own, and in five minutes from the time the anchor was dropped, silence reigned unbroken in the interest of trying who would catch 'first fish/ It fell to the little girl's luck, who, with a scream of triumph, well supported by Bob's joyous shout, pulled up a perch of some six inches long. Bites were soon got in other parts of the boat ; and before long, it seemed to have been generally rumoured all through the depths of the Mere, that worms were to be had for the trouble of mouth-opening at that particular spot ; and a scene of activity and mirth and con- fusion resulted, which it is vain to attempt to describe. Everybody was catching fish principally perch ; one in ten perhaps being tench ; and all running about three or four ounces in weight and catching them, as it seemed, at the same moment. In less than an hour upwards of a hundred and fifty had been caught ; and then two or three of the fishermen knocked off. Jack, however, still persevered, and the little girl. Bob, after asking Fred if he would mind baiting Minnie's hook as she might happen to need it, turned round and crossed to where Mr. Barrow was sitting, and said to him, 234 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS " Mr. Barrow, you said last year you had taken perch (in a Scotch loch, I think you said,) with a fly. Would you be so kind as to see if I have got one here/' producing his fly-book, " which would do?" Mr. Barrow selected two, while Bob was putting his rod together, and threading the line through the rings; this done, he took the flies from his adviser's hands, and proceeded to affix them secun- dum artem. There was a nice little ripple on, and Bob executed sundry throws, though without success. Presently, however, making a good throw in another direction, an undoubted rise followed close upon it, but he did not strike quickly enough, Mr. Barrow said, to hook the fish. Drawing his line in, previous to another throw, he felt a tug, and giving a jerk at the same instant, he did succeed, this time, in fixing his hook. The rod was, after this, put into Mr. Barrow's hands, and he in a very few minutes secured half a dozen perch. Jack had been very successful, too, during the fly-fishing experiment ; and just as the fly-rod was returned to its owner, a shout from him announced that he had got 'a good one/ A second or two more, and Minnie had ' a good one/ too. They were both eventually secured, and proved to be, one a perch and one a tench, of three quarters of a pound each. Soon after this, 'dinner/ or ' more fishing/ was put to the vote, FLY-FISHING FOR PERCH. 235 and ' dinner ' had it unanimously. So the anchor was raised, and the boat poled along towards the landing-place. By Mr. Barrow's advice, Bob let out a good deal of line, and let his flies trail on the surface of the water, as the boat moved on. A few moments only had passed, when he felt a tug which made his rod quiver again, and he found he had hooked a fish, which could, and would, and did show fight in earnest. Fortunately the weeds were not yet grown, otherwise he would have had no chance ; but after a contest of ten minutes he succeeded in subduing, so far as to bring up to the boat-side, a grand perch, almost a two-pounder. But the creature wasn't ' landed' yet. It made a last effort, and got under the boat, and the issue was still doubtful. Fortunately the young fisher- man got it right again, and it lay, almost motion- less, and partly on its side, just at the surface of the water. " Lay hold of the rod, Jack, and hold it just so," cried Bob. Jack comprehended what was required of him, and held the rod steadily and truly. Bob's cap was off his head in a moment, and cannily placed below the quiescent fish, which then, by a dexterous lift with both hands, was brought safely on board; a success which was duly acknowledged with a cheer, all the voices joining in which were, un- questionably, not youthful. 236 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. Dinner was next discussed, and everybody ate just such an one as everybody does eat at a pic-nic meal, and yet, still, everybody as everybody does on such occasions seemed to leave off with a reserve bit of appetite still left, somewhere. After dinner, some of the party reclined at their ease on the soft turf, some strolled off to a neighbouring wood, while Mr. Barrow and Bob returned to the boat with the fly-rod. Several more perch were taken by trailing the fly as before ; most of them small, but two or three good, though much inferior to the grand ante-prandial one. About four o'clock the whole party were once more collected, and began to retrace their steps to the farm-house ; Jack having, with Minnie in his company, been lucky enough to find an undisputed goldfinch's nest in a low growing elm- tree; a beautiful fabric though less elaborately finished than the chaffinch's of moss and roots twisted and bound together with wool, decorated on the outside with lichens, and so warmly lined with thistle down, mixed with that off the seeds of the willow ; just a light feather or two and a few hairs being also discernible. There were four eggs in it, and Bob pronounced the two that were taken a prize indeed. The return was accomplished pleasantly, and in good time, and our two schoolboys went to bed, heartily delighted with their day at Croxteth, and thoroughly well tired. CHAPTEE XL Plans ; Nesting or Pike-fishing ? First Lessons in Trolling A Pike caught Bob 'run at' and 'taken'; and, in turn, becomes the Taker Marsh Titmouse and Nest Redstart's Nest A dazed Water-rat A Rabbit in Trouble The End of the Trouble. IT was Monday morning, a fine, exhilarating, true- bred spring morning as one could wish to see; and the party round the breakfast table were rather beginning to dally with their egg-spoons and silver-forks, or with the corner-stone piece of muffin or toast, and the culminating cup of coffee, when Mr. Benson, looking up from his Times, said, " Now, boys, what are you disposed for to-day, in the way of pastime or amusement?" "Oh! papa," said Mary, the second Miss Benson Polly she was usually called by their father, and brother, and sisters "they wont know what you mean, if you speak so to them." " Not know what I mean " "Why, father, interrupted Fred, "Polly only means that you fail in correct expression alter the 238 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. most approved style with f smart' young gentle- men like our cousin Bob here. You should have said, 'Now, you fellers, or Now, young chaps, what are you f fly for/ or what are you ' up to/ or what are you ' game for/ this morning ?' And the answer would of course have been, ' Oh, up to anything, uncle, from pitch and toss to manslaughter/ Bob grinned rather meaningly, and appeared to be very busy caressing an imaginary pair of whiskers ; but Mr. Benson ( sat corrected/ and put his question duly revised as to mode of expression in the form, " What are you ( game for' this morning, Bob ? VTou are a keen birds'-nester, I know, also a keen angler; and so is Jack, I suppose. Or, there are your cousin's ponies, if you would prefer a scamper over the common. Suit yourselves and you will suit me." The answer to the question required a little consideration. In the quiet walk yesterday after- noon, in the course of which the three lads and the two elder young ladies had found themselves, almost insensibly, drawn to the bank of the river, and pacing leisurely along its course for some distance, its capabilities, in sundry stretches of quiet, reed-fringed, water-lily bestrewed pools, as a pike river were commented on by the elder youth. WHAT SHALL WE DO? 239 Jack had never seen a pike at all, and much less any application of the various means of catching that not very amiable-looking and therefore, perhaps rather unnecessarily abused inhabitant of the fresh water. And, to tell the truth, Bob himself was anything but well-acquainted with any part of the history piscatory or natural of this fish. He, therefore, as well as Jack, was rather eagerly disposed for a little pike-fishing. But again, rumours of sundry nests belonging to birds whose eggs were not yet in the collection, and which nests had been marked for them by one or two persons, to whom Mr. Benson had made a special request as to nests, in anticipation of the schoolboys' visit to him, together with the assurance that they were in a part of the country which, partly from the undisturbed state of the hedge- rows and woods, consequent on very strict preser- vation of the game, and partly from the systematic destruction by gamekeepers of all kinds of birds of prey, abounded in an unusual degree in small birds; these considerations swayed them very strongly to a regular day's nest hunting. But there was yet a third matter to be weighed, and that was this; that while the two Elmdoi. boys had three clear days before them, and part of the fourth having to be back at school, under somewhat stringent enforcement of the rule, by 240 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. Thursday night without fail Fred only had this Monday, and Tuesday morning at his command; and therefore both Bob and Jack turned to him as Mr. Benson ceased speaking, and in almost the game words asked him, ' What he would like best to do ? he, who had but one day more at home?' At first he attempted to put back the choice of pursuit upon the visitors ; but, finding they were quite in earnest in deferring the solution to him, he confessed himself so ill able to choose between a regular ramble over the country side after nests, and a day of fishing with an interlude of trolling, that he was fain to settle it by tossing up. The half crown was actually poised on the knuckles of his thumb, it being settled that ' heads ' was to be fishing, when the little girl, looking into the letter- bag which hung on the corner of Mr. Benson's chair, observed in it a letter which had been over- looked and left behind when the others were taken out. " Oh ! Papa," she cried, as she took it out, "here is another letter for you, which you have not seen." Taking the letter from his little daughter's hands, Mr. Benson proceeded to open it, and, having looked at it, tossed it over to his son, saying, as he did so, "There, Fred, there's a bit of luck. Repairs EXCURSION SUGGESTED. 241 going on in the office which cannot be completed before Wednesday. Nothing for you to do if you go up. Very kind of Mr. Marshall to write and say so." "Yes, the old buffer's a brick/' began Fred, but got no further ; for Jack nudged Bob, and, in an intentionally audible ' aside,' whispered to him, " I say, what a ( smart young gentleman ' Fred must be ! Quite the ' approved style/ you see." A hearty laugh succeeded to Jack's sally, in which Fred joined as heartily as any of the party. Presently he said, (the half-crown being once more poised), " Well, I may as well toss, after all, which we shall have to-day, and which save for to-morrow." " Sorry to interrupt you, Fred," said his father ; " but stop a moment and hear what I have to say. If you fish to-day, as I told you last evening, I can go with you till one o'clock. After that I am engaged. To-morrow, as you can be with us, I propose that we go to some little distance from home. You recollect Mr. Barrow told us that, no doubt owing to the very early and genial spring for we have had no cold weather since the middle of February, you know the gulls at Fly ton Mere have begun to lay these two or three weeks ; while I believe also at Summerton Broads we should not be too early to find some nests which B 242 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. would, I am sure, be extremely interesting to the oologists from Elmdon. Now, if we were to get breakfast over by six o'clock or a little past, we might take the morning mail at Scawton, and get to within a mile of Fly ton by half-past seven. I would order an open carriage to meet us at Flyton turnpike at ten, and then an hour and a half would take us to Summerton Broad. Once there, you know, you could go to sleep if you liked to make up for your early rousing and rising ; while I set a few trimmers for pike, and looked about for a crested grebe's nest or two, and watched the reed titmice. What do you say, lads ?" Jack's quiet " Oh ! Mr. Benson, how kind you are," was quite drowned in Bob's rather uproarious " Three cheers for uncle, hip ! hip ! hurray !" while Fred came up to his father's elbow, and said in a low tone, "There's another 'old buffer that's a brick/ father. If you really can take us, without incon- venience, I don't know which of us will enjoy it most." " Not more than I shall myself, Fred, my boy, I dare say. So that is settled then. Bob, you lazy fellow, you'll be left in bed, as sure as possible." Bob, however, did not seem to think the taunt and insinuation worthy of very serious notice, and contented himself with a pantomimic gesture, PIKE HOOKS 'OF SORTS/ 243 the principal part of which consisted in pointing backwards with the thumb of his sinister hand over the corresponding shoulder, and interjecting the three words, " Rather so, uncle." In half an hour's time, Bob and Jack were both at work at the river near the bridge, one of them trying to catch a few small roach or dace, and the other on a shoal known to be much frequented by gudgeons. Fred, in the meantime, was looking out and arranging a couple of trolling rods, with their stiff tops and strong tackle ; and also an assort- ment of pike or trolling-hooks. The snap-hook was there in a drawer in his father's little old- fashioned fishing cabinet of ebony, together with the corpulent float in connexion with which it was used. Then there was the bead-hook, with its gimp armature and depending pellet of lead. There was also the gorge-hook, with its lead-covered shank; and, lastly, there was an arrangement of hooks on the same principle as the spinning ap- paratus used in trout fishing, but on a larger scale. When Fred, having prepared everything and sought up his father, joined the two boys at the river-side it was found that they had been success- ful in obtaining about a dozen gudgeons, six of which were serviceable as baits, and nearly twenty roach and dace, half of which might, if needed, have been made useful. Mr. Benson intended to 244 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. troll in the legitimate way, and so proceeded to bait a gorge-hook with the help of a baiting-needle, doing his work very neatly and carefully, down to the tying of the tail to the wire with silk, to finish off with. Fred preferred using a bead-hook, and speedily had the ' bead'' stitched into the mouth of the gudgeon selected for his bait, which, like his father's, was of course dead. Walking about two hundred yards up the stream, they came to a deep, unbroken stretch of pool. There was a beautiful ripple on the water, and very little sun. Mr. Benson proceeded to com- mence operations here. Drawing out a good deal of line, he gave his bait a swing with the rod, casting it gently from him at the same instant, and graduating the forces upon it so nicely that it slipped into the water twenty or twenty- five feet from the point of his rod without any splash, and so gently that it scarce raised any rings in the water even. Letting it sink a foot and a half or so in an oblique direction, the fisherman then drew it a foot or two through the water towards him and rather up stream; then letting it sink again, as before, then drawing it again ; and so on alter- nately, till it had passed across a considerable por- tion of the river-width. Then he prepared for another throw by drawing out his bait gently and steadily, but still with sufficient force to cause it TROLLING. 245 to swing past his side and backwards, to a sufficient distance to enable him to apply the elasticity of his rod to it in such a way that it was sent forward again and dropped into the water quietly as before, but at a spot some feet distant from the place of its last fall. A third throw and a fourth followed, Mr. Benson moving a few yards twice between the throws. Again another was made, and the bait entered the water beautifully at no great distance from a bed of water-lilies. It had been drawn up and let sink again about three times, when a little heave of the water was observed, followed by a slight swirl as the pike turned, after taking the bait across his jaws, to return to his hold and swallow it at his leisure. Bob as well as Mr. Benson saw his brown-looking sides as he did so; and the former supposed he was a much bigger fish than he was in reality. A pause of nearly ten minutes ensued now, this time being given to permit the pike to ' pouch/ or swallow his supposed prey. And then there occurred a slight motion of the line, which Mr. Benson had reeled in so that no slack was left in the water. Noticing this, Mr. Benson knew his time for action was come, and gave a smartish jerk, as much in an upward direction as he could. Proof positive followed that the pike was hooked, and then ensued a struggle in which man and fish were much more unequally matched 216 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. than in trout, or especially in salmon fishing. The pike struggled vehemently, but the hook, and line, and rod were all strong enough to bear a very heavy pull ; and so Mr. Benson had no difficulty in keeping him from the weeds on the far side ; and not much, when foiled in that effort he at- tempted to work in among those on the hither side, in towing him with a shortened line, through the insufficient shelter he had sought, to a place where the water was clear to the very bank. This done, he gave the rod into Bob's hand to hold, while he himself stooped down and grasping the fish with his thumb in one eye, and, forefinger in the other, lifted him out and laid him gasping on the grass. The pocket-steelyard pronounced him to be a trifle under five pounds in weight. Bob was now to make his debut as a troller. After a few efforts, and wasting a bait by his ill- usage of it in his awkwardness, he began to get the knack of nmking the cast. After about twenty minutes a small jack actually ' ran at' and ' took him.' Bob's muscles, in his trepidation, did what would have been right enough in fly-fishing, but was sadly out of place in trolling ; namely, gave a jerk, and a smart one, to the fish which had 'taken' him. Although a very youthful pike, he had had quite sufficient experience in his own private fishings to be quite well aware that no gudgeon not only BOB'S FIEST PIKE. 247 never had on any former occasion, but never ought on any occasion, to act in that way in his mouth ; " a tug fit to loosen my teeth !" he probably said to himself; "that's queer ! The gudgeon's bewitched. I'll have no more on't." And, suiting the action to the word, he would drop the fish he had intended to lunch on, and swim away with a look of as much disgust on his countenance as that rather inexpres- sive part of a fish could be made to assume. Mr. Benson laughingly rebuked Bob's blunder, and set him to rebait his hook, giving him an occasional hint as he did so. Once more Bob re- sumed his trolling. The part of the river they had now come to had several alder stubs about on the banks ; and, over against the place where Bob was standing, was one which, with the little pro- jecting cape of bank it stood on, formed a sort of termination to a largish bed of weeds. The water here could be fished without need for a very long line, and the boy made a very good beginning. Proceeding to cast rather further upwards, he made a splash, and a loud one, with his bait, and was drawing it back rather hurriedly with the intention of trying to make a better cast. In doing so, he felt his bait suddenly arrested, as if the hook had caught on a stake or firm branch of a submerged tree. " I think I've caught " " a tree," he was 248 PLAY- HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. going to say, when he felt, very sensibly, a tug which drew line from the slack in his hand. He was not long in letting it all free, and preparing to draw more from the reel, if necessary ; and a little was necessary. The pike which had 'taken him' seemed to have come from a distance ; for he had taken not less than ten yards of line out (besides that along the rod from the reel to the top ring), before he reached his hold. Mr. Benson had watched the proceedings closely. " Look out, Bob," he said ; " that fellow wont be long in pouching your bait. He's hungry, or he wouldn't have come so far from home; and I fancy he's a good one. Be ready for him when he moves. It wont be long first." Nor was it long. Less than five minutes sufficed in his case ; and then Bob, under Mr. Benson's direc- tions, struck him. The boy soon found it was not a sucking specimen of a pike this time. But his fight with the great perch at Docwra's mill, independently of his trout-fishing experience, made him a dangerous match even for a very imperative and bumptious eight-pound pike; especially when he could rely confidently on the goodness of his pike tackle. And so, after about a quarter of an hour of tussling, the fish gave in, was lifted out by Mr. Benson, killed, weighed, and declared to be an honest eight - pounder. NESTING V. FISHING. 249 With this trophy in his hand, he could not be content without running on to overtake his two cousins and exhibiting to them such a token of his prowess. On coming up with them he found that Fred had taken two fish, both under two pounds ; and that Jack had had a ' run/ but lost his fish. It had been struck too soon, Fred thought, and only insecurely hooked.- Mr. Benson now left them to their own devices. Another small pike or two was taken ; and then an incident which befel, of a new character, diverted their attention from further fishing of any sort. They were all three sitting down and enjoying the luncheon which had been prepared and packed into a corner of the large fishing-basket which hung from Fred's shoulder. Just before sitting down, Bob had produced his knife, and climbing part of the way up the trunk of an old pollard willow, had cut himself a stoutish stick with a fork to it, to fix in the ground as a support to his fishing-rod during the time they were occupied in taking their refresh- ment; and while he was so busied, Jack had seen a small black-headed bird fly from the other side of the tree to that at which his cousin was occu- pied. He thought no more about it at the time ; but, about ten minutes afterwards, happening to cast his eye towards the same tree distant from the group some twelve or fifteen yards he ob- 250 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. served the same little bird twisting " in and out and round about" among the branches. Continuing to look at it., though in an unspeculative sort of way he wasn't thinking much of anything in particular, just then he saw it leave the boughs and begin to creep about on the trunk. AH at once, though his eyes had been fixed on it a moment since, it disappeared from view. Jumping up with some energy, all his wits being put on the alert by this vanishing scene, he ran hastily to the tree, and began to examine it closely about the place he had last seen the little bird, having rather to lean over the river in order to do so. A moment more, and he shouted out, " A hole, Bob, a hole, and a tomtit's nest in it, Pm sure." Bob and Fred both rushed up to him, and heard his narrative and confessed the hole. Disturbed by the voices, the bird a marsh titmouse, beyond dispute flew out again. Bob was soon up in the tree as high as was necessary, and craning round to get a good look into the orifice. He soon ex- claimed, " We can get it, Jack. The tree is hollow; and there's little but bark just about the hole." And then handing out his knife with his right hand, while he still clung with his left, he said, " Here, old fellow, open it and give it me again, sharp !" AN OBLIGING ROACH. 251 In ten seconds more he was whittling away at the orifice ; finding the task of widening it, how- ever, a rather more difficult one than he had anti- cipated. Still, perseverance and dexterous use of the knife for ten minutes opened a space big enough to admit his hand; and on inserting it he found no less than seven delicate little white eggs, spotted with red. These were soon abstracted and taken care of, and they returned to their basket and rods. Bob's rod, supported on his forked stick, was not quite so motionless as it had been when they left it. It was jerking about a good deal ; and, but for the prop, no doubt would have been drawn in and towed oft' bodily. He was not long in laying hold of it, and lifting out rather a large-sized roach. Soon after this they gathered all together rods, baskets, and spare food and proceeded still further up the river, intending to cross over at a foot-bridge close below a ford a little higher up, and go on to a gorse-covered common to find a few nests, if they could have the luck. Several flaky stones lay about on the road leading to the ford, and they must needs amuse themselves by ' making ducks and drakes' in the long reach of smooth water above the ford. After'a few minutes spent thus, Fred challenged Bob to throw at a mark, and Jack was sent to place a large Hint on 252 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. the top of one of the two low, rough walls which, bordered the bit of green on each side the roadway down to the ford. Fred threw first, and his pebble dashed out a small puff of white dust, about a foot below the mark. Bob then threw, and his stone went nearly a yard beyond the mark, and as much below it as his cousin's. As it glanced off sharply, it as nearly as could be struck a little bird which flew out of the wall a little beyond. The little creature ducked in its flight as the stone whizzed on in its course, and so avoided it ; and then alight- ing on the other wall opposite, began to move its tail in a peculiar way, and perseveringly to emit a rather sharp chattering note. "What's that, Bob?" cried Jack, sharply. " Wales o'names for it, Jack/' was the reply ; " but a question more to the point just now would be Where did it come from ?" Neither Jack nor Fred could answer it, but all three ran up to the place ; Bob calculating with himself the course his stone must have taken after glancing from the wall : " Here's the mark of my stone," he cried, " and somewhere here it must have been where it nearly hit the bird. The nest wont be far from this ;" touching the wall as he spoke. " Look, Bob, what's that ? more to your right ; that hole there, with a bit o' something like HOW TO GET THEM? 253 a straw or dead grass hanging out?" asked Jack. "This? why, it's the hole with the nest in ! Well done, Jack." A moment's pause, during which he was intently looking into the hole, now shading his eyes with his hands in one position, now in another : "As dark as a dog's mouth!" he cried; "I can't see a thing, except darkness. Hullo ! Oh ! you're there, are you, my beauties? Six eggs, Jack ; such loves !" But how to get them ? The hole harely ad- mitted three fingers of either of their hands ; and Bob's knife was not available to enlarge a hole in a stone wall. Jack thought they might take part of the wall down and rebuild it. Bob thought a good lump of flint would serve to chip off a rather angular projection of one of the stones edging the hole, and proceeded to search for a suitable one. Fred offered no suggestion; but, while Jack was speculating as to the amount of skill and labour requisite to accomplish his plan, and Bob was making a comparative collection of flints, sauntered off up the lane that led from the ford. In five minutes' space, he was seen returning; Bob having, in the interval, broken two likely -looking flints and bruised a finger, but not having hurt the wall-stone much, and Jack being busy essaying the 254 TLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. removal of a coping-stone or two from the top of the wall. When, therefore, Fred was observed swing- ing a good heavy hammer in his hand, his arrival was celebrated with the best cheer which could be got up and sustained by two boys' voices only. A couple of smart taps judiciously applied cracked the corner of the stone, a third loosened the piece assailed, and then it was easy to remove it and insert a boy's hand. A couple of eggs were taken, and blown on the spot, to make sure a third would not be wanted. The fragment was next replaced, and the nest left, none the worse in reality, although the little birds it belonged to seemed by their incessant chatterings and tail-flirtings and Sittings about, to have a dreadful anticipation of its utter destruction. As the trio moved off to the foot-bridge, Jack re- turned to the inquiry he had made a while before. He said, " I say, Bob, tell us two or three of those 'wales' of names you mentioned just now, will you?" " Aye, old fellow ; all of 'em, as far as I know. Redstart is the ordinary name of the bird ; but then it is called redtail, firetail, and brantail, from the red colour of his tail ; and also fireflirt, from the colour and the habit of flirting or jerking the tail about as you saw just now. Didn't you think the WATER RAT. 255 cock a very beautiful fellow, with his white and pure blue and jet black head, and red tail ?" " Indeed, I did, Bob. I never noticed one be- fore, that I remember." " Well, I don't think there are many about El melon. I don't recollect seeing one there either." As they were crossing the wooden-bridge, which consisted of half-a-tree, sawn longitudinally, and rudely squared, and with a couple of side-rails about hip-high, Bob's watchful eye lit upon an object which moved a little on the far bank, near the water-edge, eight or nine yards below the end of the bridge. A second glance showed him it was a water-rat, which had just given itself, or rather its head and neck only, the slightest shake possible, and now sat, perfectly still, much in the attitude one often sees the dormouse drawn in ; that is to say, with the length of the body made the very least of possible. He stopped and pointed it out to his companions. Fred happened to have a couple of smooth pebbles in his hand, which he had been throwing up and catching alternately, with one hand, for the last minute or so before reaching the bridge. To shy one at the rat was the impulse and the action of a moment, rather to Bob's discomposure. The stone struck the water exactly below the rat, and made a very consider- able splash, throwing lots of water, in fact, right 256 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. into the creature's face. Rather to the surprise of the lads, the only movement it made was slightly to alter the direction of the forepart of its body. The second stone was shied a moment later, and like the former one was too low, though otherwise well directed. Another splash, another half motion of the rat, and that was all. Fred rushed hastily off the bridge, and caught up three or four more pebbles. None were far wide, but neither did any strike the poor creature; and when the sixth stone struck the mud within four inches of its nose, it had not altogether moved six inches from the place at which it had been first observed. Two more stones were flung, and then Bob's interces- sion prevailed, After watching the rat fully five minutes, during which it only moved its head slightly, though from the strong light which fell upon it, they could clearly see the rapid heaving of its sides under the emotion of terror, at last it began to move towards the water, into which they watched it slowly enter, and then as slowly, almost listlessly as it were swim along under the side. " What on earth's the matter with the crea- ture ?" cried Fred. " I am sure I never hit it. It must be ill ; ' going to die, most surely/ or some- thing/' " Well, Fred, I don't know. But T saw one of WATER-RAT ECCENTRICITIES. 257 our fellows why, you'll recollect old Beasley ? shoot at one with a pistol five or six times one day, and it acted just like this. And he knew a fellow who shot at one seven times, and then it dropped into the water, he said, and he shied a stone at it and killed it. And when I was with my brother Ned that day up the Whitadder last summer holidays, he almost jumped upon one as he leaped across a little rivulet that ran into the river near Hutton bridge ; and the brute hardly moved at first ; and when it did move it went very gently into the shallow stream, and hardly tried either to escape or conceal itself. He tapped it with the thin end of his fly-rod, and it actually turned round and swam right in, close to his feet. I fancy they get flustered, and don't know what to do; just like some people, who never know what to do, or indeed what they are doing sometimes, if any sudden thing comes upon them or startles them. What makes it odder is, that I never heard of any other creature going that way." " Ah ! that puts me in mind," returned Fred. f A little before we went to meet you at the sta- tion on Thursday, I went out with my father's gun to try and shoot a rabbit. I saw one about thirty yards off, sitting near its hole. I took a steady aim, and fired. It bounded a foot or two back from its hole, and began to kick, and I thought 258 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. 'twas done for, safe. However, old Dash, who had crept after me, cut in, and just as it was beginning to make a feeble, wooden-leg sort of run still from its hole, though he caught it up. Well, you know, he does like to get a rabbit in his jaws. He doesn't bite so as to hurt them, though he seems to be champing 'em savage enough ; and it's always a bother to get them away from him, for as you go towards him he trots off, wagging his tail, and looking abominably delighted, and as if part of his delight was in teasing you. So I shouted to him after going after him twenty or thirty yards, ' Dash, you brute, lay it down, will you ?' and made a rush after him. Well, he laid it down now, and the rabbit struggled on to its legs again; and before I could catch it, plunged into a small hole about three or four yards off which I hadn't noticed, and scuttled out of sight in a moment. That was rather different from the water-rat, wasn't it, Bob?" " Just a little. I can't make it out, a bit." By this time they had crossed the meadow into which they had entered from the bridge, and were passing through a gate on to a common, which in many places showed a thick and extensive growth of furze. Just as Jack, who was last, caught the gate from Fred, who was holding it open, Bob turned partly towards the other two, whispering, A RABBIT IN DISTRESS. 259 " Hush ! be quite quiet. Here's a rabbit coming right towards us." The little animal was not above thirty yards from them, and they saw it take two or three of its hopping paces, and then rest a moment. Then two or three in another direction, and another pause. Something struck them as unusual in its gestures. It seemed to be listening, and listening uneasily. Then it moved again in a desultory way ; then lis- tened; then moved again. But still in such a different way, as it appeared to the boys, from any- thing they had ever noticed before when near enough to rabbits at their evening outing for play or exercise and food, for instance to watch them closely. The rabbit came nearer and nearer ; passed within three yards of them without appear- ing to notice them at all ; though still it seemed to listen, and to be, as it were, uneasily expectant. Jack was so surprised at what he saw that he obeyed a sort of spontaneous impulse to try and catch it. His movement for the purpose startled the rabbit, which now set off at speed, and ran thirty or forty yards direct for the hedge beyond the gate, and, passing through a run in it, into the meadow the lads had just left. Looking after it, they saw it ran fast no further than about five yards into the meadow, and then began again the quamt procedure which had seemed so strange to 260 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. them. Just then, a faint, chiding note, that was familiar in its sound to none of them, fell upon their ears, coming from the direction in which they had seen the rabbit approach. Looking round, the sound grew louder and more distinct; though,, still, not loud absolutely, by any means. The origin of the cries was not long left obscure. First one stoat appeared from behind a whin-bush in the very course the rabbit had taken, then another, and then a third ; all with their heads up, and in full cry, and hunting the poor rabbit in splendid style. The boys remained perfectly quiet. The stoats hunted up to where the rabbit had been frightened by Jack's effort, and had then taken two or three long leaps almost at right angles to the direction it had been going in before. Here the pursuers over- ran the scent, and soon came to a check. They 'harked back' immediately, and straightway made a masterly ' cast ' to recover the scent. In doing this, two of them became aware of the pre- sence of the ' humans/ and made a hasty escape to the hedge just past the gate. The third, however, who was further out on the common, had just caught some indication of the rabbit's track, and, possibly on that account, did not notice the defec- tion of his allies. A moment later he hit on the track, and his tongue was ( thrown ' immediately. Following up the scent, and repeating his note, Stoats and Rabbit. p. 261 THE RABBIT f RUN INTO/ 261 the other two left their concealment several feet further down the hedge than where they had entered it, and ran hastily across the intervening space to their companion. Bob now turned his eyes to ob- serve what had become of the rabbit, and, after a moment or two spent in scanning the meadow, near where he had seen it last, observed it about twenty- five or thirty yards nearer the river, and still going on in the same purposeless, anxious, hopeless-look- ing sort of way. The stoats passed through the hedge, and ran briskly on ; the rabbit heard them coming, and, in a fit of desperation, broke out into a gallop ; but soon stopped again, and hopped on as before. Then another gallop, another desultory, hopeless fit. Soon the pursuers ' turned ' it, and it came back on its course towards the gate again. It was easy to see now that it was ' dis- tressed ;' as a hare that has been coursed is. And it was easy to see, too, that the end was near. The stoats came up at a fast gallop thej 7 " were not ten yards behind. Another spurt of the rabbit, but a faint and feeble one; and, twenty seconds after that, the foremost stoat flung itself on its victim, fastening to its throat, with its lithe body twisted right over the body of the poor rabbit. Its struggles were over in a few seconds, and then the fierce creatures who had killed it were busy about its head and neck ; one ot' them, however, getting 262 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. a little snubbed by the other two, who were pro- bably a married pair. Intensely interested with the chase and its result, the boys sat still on the gate talking it over, and never thinking of the lapse of time. And when at last it did occur to them to think of the clock, they were surprised to find that they had scarcely any time left for nesting. However, they moved on among the furze thickets, and found a linnet's nest or two, and also a stone-chat's ; nothing else. They had just agreed that it would be as well to give up nest-hunting and to walk leisurely home, when Bob, swinging his rod carelessly against a tallish bush, was rather startled by seeing a bird of consi- derable size and spread of wing fly hastily and awk- wardly in a way, indeed, that rather reminded him of an owl's flight, when a feathered worthy of that description is forced to take the air in the day-time in its course to another bush about a hundred yards away. Fred exclaimed, " A fern owl ! a fern owl ! where did it fly from ?" A great search followed, but no nest appeared. So they had to content themselves with making him fly again, promising to come another day and look for a nest ; and then jogged off home, at a briskish pace, so as to be able to reach the house in good time to make the needful preparations for ' putting in' a suitable ' appearance' at the dinner-table. CHAPTEK XII. A Walk to the Common The Great Gravel-pit Sand Martins and their Nests Thunder-bolts and Boat-shells Goat- suckers Flyton Mere Black-headed Gulls, Water-Rail, and Black Tern, their Nests and Eggs Bob's Mischance. DUE justice was done at dinner time to Bob's pike, which had been scientifically stuffed and roasted, thanks to Mr. Benson's foresight in carrying it home himself and duly delivering it into the hands of the cook, on his return to the house from the river- side. And indeed it was a capital fish, and de- served all the honour it received. When dinner was quite over, and the party left the table, there was still a good hour of day -light, besides the pleasant gloaming of a beautiful evening at the end of April, and little Minnie Benson was very urgent with her sister Polly to go out with her for a walk. That young lady was not at all un- willing to go, and the two schoolboys volunteered to accompany the girls. Fred, rather groaning over having to stay behind to write a couple of letters that he would have no time for in the morn- ins?, sat down to his desk. 264 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. The walkers took their way across the lawn in front, and passed into a gravel walk which wound through a shrubbery, separated from the fields by a tall, thick, well-clipped thorn-hedge. Passing out through a wicket-gate into an accommodation- path across a pasture, they presently turned through an odd sort of gate into a sandy lane, up which they proceeded, instead of crossing into a broader road which conducted to the village and the parish church. Bob and Miss Benson walked quite stea- dily along this quiet lane, Jack and Minnie mean- while conducting themselves quite as juveniles should do, running and playing and laughing with perfect abandonment and delight. It was almost laughable if anything indicative of good, hearty, human affection and kindness, even between a schoolboy of thirteen and a little girl of eleven, can be laughable, or anything but beautiful and true to see the love the little girl cherished for Jack, and the kindly, unaffected manner and care he manifested towards her. She seemed to feel nay, she did feel that he understood her thoughts and feelings and wishes ; that, schoolboy as he was, he would not laugh at her or them, or deal lightly with either ; but that he would, that he did, sympathize with her and enter into what interested or affected or troubled her with all his true, honest boy's heart ; while he seemed to look upon her confidence JACK ' ROMANCES' A LITTLE. 265 as something to be treasured as very costly ; to be watchful over and careful for, as being susceptible of hurt and damage if not cared for ; and moreover as being such that, if once really harmed by care- lessness, or rough, rude treatment, it must be shat- tered and deprived of its virtue and its beauty, perhaps even lost and destroyed for ever. And so they were great friends. She clung to him and he talked to her, and played with her, and did things for her, in a way that a week before he would have used very strong schoolboy language over well sprinkled, to wit, with ' I say, what a sell !' and { Aint it a bore, just ?' but which now, strange to say, seemed quite insufficient even for the complete- ness of his own pleasure. And there they were, now running a few steps, then moving at a gentler pace, she with fast hold of his hand and calling him her f brother Jack,' and telling him he e mustn't go away so soon as Thursday;' and he, in return, drawing terrible pictures of his master, as high as the church and as black-looking as the distant hill that looked so dark under the westering sun, and with a birch rod in his hand as big as one of the poplar trees on their left a little below them : and how he, poor Jack, would be served worse than cockchafers ' spun' by cruel boys if he wasn't in his place on Friday morning, and all because 'that horrid little Minnie Benson' had persuaded him to 266 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. play truant. And then he laughed at his own picture, and she as merrily as he ; and more still at the thought that he should call her that ' horrid little Minnie;' he that her little faith and love were so glad to rest on, next after her own dear mother, and her dear sister Emily, who was ' never cross to her, even when she was naughty/ To tell the truth, their joyous shouts made Bob's legs tingle under him. He would have liked to ran with them and enter into all their glee. And yet, even if Miss Benson could, for the nonce, have become Tay Spencer and have joined him in the frolic, he would very likely have restrained himself. He had never seen Jack ' come out' so before, and though not, strictly speaking, surprised for he had taken tolerably accurate measurement, boy-like, of his cousin's character and disposition yet he was delighted to see how he was insensibly and uninten- tionally recommending himself to every one, and he would have been sorry in his own hearty, honest, frank boy's heart to have done a deed or said a word which would have had ever so little effect in caus- ing Jack to draw back at all into his usual ' shell.' And so he walked on quite soberly with his young lady companion The sounds and sights of a fine spring evening were all around them. The sun, low down in the west, was shooting out his long, bright, slanting EVENING SIGHTS AND SOUNDS. 267 golden beams, illuminating the windows which faced him with a glorious, dazzling sheen. Streaks of primrose and faint rosy pink stretched them- selves along the horizon on either side ; a few small dappled clouds floated overhead, sober-looking compared with those gold and purple-tinted ones nearer the departing ' greater light that rules the day ' fair flowers and sweet scents, freshness and verdure, the merry thrush on the topmost branch of twenty trees within hearing distance, each pouring out his clear, strong, liquid notes in the very revelry of spring feelings and enjoyments, intermingling a few slower, softer, more plaintive notes now and then, and straightway piping out clearer, stronger, gladder than before, as if in very wantonness, or mockery of the thought that he could ever be less blessed than now ; all these were there. Then the song of the nightingale burst out, and would be replied to in five or six different quarters a moment after; that strange, sweet song that affects one who used to listen to it and love it well, but has not heard it by reason of dwelling far removed from nightingale haunts for long years, so powerfully and sweetly, recall- ing, may be, gentle thoughts and pure thoughts, and alas ! dead hopes and disappointed aspirations, that were with him when he heard those sweet notes last. And the little brown hedge-sparrow, 268 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. that must be looked for to be seen, and listened for, or never heard, it, too, added its sweet, low little lay. And the lark's evensong was chanted above their heads, in the sky, by many a glad chorister, and the woodlark's circling song broke out again and again as the walkers stopped to listen. One white throat they heard, too, and two or three tomtits chimed in with their little musical, but still not inharmonious voice, in this concert of nature and evening. And once, Bob thought he heard a black-cap ; and not once, nor twenty times, the cheery song of the chaffinch. They reached the end of the lane, which opened on to a space of furzy common, bordered on the two sides furthest from them by woods, one appa- rently of great extent, and with many a noble tree towering above the general leafy level; the other seeming to consist mainly of dark, sombre pines. Nearer them, too, were three or four smaller patches of trees, and a few groups of firs, three or four, or half-a-dozen trees in each. The wheel-tracks along the lane continued to form a roadway over part of the common, but turning a good deal to the left as soon as the open space was reached. Along this road Minnie and her friend Jack had continued to tread, being by this time fully a hundred yards in advance of their more sober companions. Very soon after these last had reached the common, and THE GREAT GRAVEL-PIT. 269 had paused a little, that Bob might be able to cast his eye at leisure over the scenery just now noticed, a great outcry was heard clearly in Jack's tones, as Bob knew well enough, from the direction in which the former had been seen to turn with the little girl. Bob was not long in turning round to see what his cousin was ' up to/ or had discovered, to occasion such a ' hullabaloo/ as he called it. But no Jack and no Minnie were anywhere visible. The elder boy's first thought was, that the f two small children' had hid them- selves, and were trying to provoke a search ; and he said so to Miss Benson. " No/' replied she, " I think not. They are in the ( Great Gravel -pit/ and probably have met with something which interests them. Let us go and see." A very short space of time sufficed to bring the two to the entrance to the pit. It well deserved its name ; f the Great Gravel-pit.' Thousands upon thousands, and tens of thousands, of cartloads of gravel and sand must have been taken thence ; some coarse and pebbly, the pebbles sometimes big enough to require breaking ; other fine, and requiring little or no screening to fit it for the gravel- walk in the gentleman's garden ; and both running in regular seams or strata, of varying shade, from almost white to a deep yellow. Above 270 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. all, as well as interspersed in thinner beds between the seams of gravel, lay sand, the surface bed being five or six feet in thickness. Before Bob actually reached the opening of the pit, he had little trouble in guessing what might be the cause of Jack's triumphant shout, for he saw a host of birds that he knew, flying almost as thick as bees, about and above the edges of the excavation. Another glance revealed to him, what, in fact, he was in expecta- tion of seeing there, numerous circular, or nearly circular orifices in the sand bed, and in one or two of the higher sand- seams or strata of softer and smaller gravel. They had come upon a singularly numerous colony of sand-martins. The pit was probably fifty or sixty yards wide, by nearly twice as much long, and the perpendicular banks at the further end and sides would not be less than fourteen to sixteen feet high ; and, in several different parts of them, the holes were so numerous, that an or- dinary silk pocket-handkerchief might have covered ten or twelve or fifteen of them. One portion of exposed surface was quarried so thickly by the little feathered miners, that Bob counted, in a space of a few yards wide, nearly two hundred holes, and a hasty calculation led him to estimate the total number in the entire pit as not less than twelve to fifteen hundred. Jack was dreadfully anxious to make acquaintance COLONY OF SAND MARTINS. 271 with the inside of one of these nests, although Bob assured him it was scarcely likely that many of them would have eggs in, at so early a period in a migratory bird's nesting-season. Besides, very few of the holes were less than eight feet from the foot of the bank ; and still fewer less than two feet at least from the top. Minnie it was who solved this difficulty, by pointing out a place where a large mass of the superficial soil and herbage had fallen in, a year or two since, probably from having been undermined by the villagers in quest of a peculiar fine and light-coloured sand, found in that part of the pit, and very much in request for sanding the floors of their cottages. Above the masses so fallen, and within reach from them, she had detected the existence of four or five holes rather irregular in shape, compared with the great majority and into one of which she had seen a bird fly a moment or two before she spoke. She fancied Jack would be able easily to get his hand into one of these ; and that one into which she had seen the creature fly, might have a nest in it. Bob agreed with her in the view she had taken, and added that most likely, from the shape of the holes one or two of which were large enough to sanction the idea that two had been run into one the sand would prove to be of a loose texture, and so, would easily permit a sufficiently large 272 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. excavation to be made. Jack had only thought of putting his hand in ; Bob, as it appeared from his actions, of his getting it in for he went out of the pit to the hedge and pulled up a hedge-stake, which he was ready to put into Jack's hand, when, on his return to the pit, he found that young gentleman foiled in his efforts and considerably less confident of penetrating to the recesses of the hole than he had been five minutes before. Bob's hedge-stake, how- ever, did great things, both in reviving his hopes and proving them well grounded, for in less than two minutes the hole, which was not a deep one, was sufficiently enlarged to show a small compilation of pieces of straw rudely fashioned into a nest-like form. Jack now inserted his hand, and in- stantly exclaimed, in tones expressive of disap- pointment "Why, there are young ones, Bob !" A moment later, however, he added, "but there are some eggs not yet hatched, besides." That there was a bird in the nest, was quite true : that there were young birds in it, was a hasty conclusion. He felt the bird under his hand, and it neither struggled nor fluttered nor kicked, nor showed any other signs of confusion or resentment. And when he took it gently out, and saw it was veritably an old bird, it still lay quietly on his open palm to be scrutinized by all four pairs of Sand-Martin's Nests. p. 272 SAND-MARTINS' NESTS. 273 eyes, and required to be pushed almost off his hand before it took the hint and flew away, evidently quite well, and sound in wind and limb. There were three delicate, rather lengthy, white eggs, in the nest ; and Jack felt himself obliged to abstract one to serve as a memorial of his visit to this gravel-pit. Bob warned him, however, not to suppose that all the holes would be so easily pene- trated. He said he had worked at a good many on one or two different occasions, and had had his arm in half a dozen, to the end of which it was all he could do to reach : and there had been others, in which his brother Ned had inserted his whole arm and shoulder, and yet had not been able to reach to the nest. Probably the one, whose nest they had just found, had been in haste for a nest-home, and had taken the one that gave her least trouble. Turning to leave the gravel-pit, little Minnie was observed busily looking over a heap of gravel, laid ready for carting out and being used upon the roads, and laying to one side, from time to time, a pebble which she had selected from among the others. The other three went up to her, and as they approached, she called to Bob " Look here, Cousin Eobert, here are three 'thunder-bolts/ and five ' boat- shells/ Won't you like to look at them, as you do at Papa's old stones at home ?" T 274 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. " Indeed I should, Minnie woman. Thank you so much for thinking of it. Why, what a beauty this thunder-bolt is ! It's one of the most perfect I ever saw." " And it's got such a lot of brimstone in it ! Only rub it against this other, and you'll see." "Smell, shouldn't I, Minnie?" Minnie laughed, and called him a ' horrid prig,' and told him he ' knew what she meant, very well.' Bob asked her if she would like to know what these things were, and the names they were rightly called by. " Oh, yes ! But aren't these things real thun- der-bolts ? Nurse always said they were, and that they were shot down from the clouds when it thun- dered." " Oh ! that was a mistake," replied Bob : " though I used to think so myself till Dr. Hazle- hurst taught me better. It was one day when I had picked up a bit of a very big one in the Museum, and asked him if that ' piece of thunder- bolt ought to be there.' ' Thunder-bolt, my boy,' he said ; l don't you know better than that ? That's a fragment of belemnite, and it was once a part the interior part, of a creature of the cuttle- fish order.' And then he showed me several others, one in particular, which he said was believed to be one of the most perfect hitherto A LITTLE FOSSIL-TALK. 275 found, and showed me it had three or four different parts. And after that, he showed me a drawing which was intended to be a guess, going on what could be known from all that had been found in the fossil-way, and on all that was known of similar creatures, as to what the original creatures that owned these weapon-pointed things may have been like. It looked like a spike tied up in a loose bag, with half a dozen worms growing out of where its head should be, and twisting about. And this ' boat-shell' was once a sort of oyster, and it's called GrypTicea. I think this is Grypli&a in- curvata" " But if it was an oyster once, and these other things pieces of fish were they its bones? And however did they both get here, in among this gravel ?" " Oh !" replied Bob, " you'll soon puzzle me if you ask me many questions about such things. But Dr. Noble told me one day that, though fossils were generally found imbedded in the rocks they belonged to, yet sometimes they not only get washed out of those rocks, but get imbedded a second time among a lot of stones and sand and mud that have come from a dozen different places. And when I was at the seaside last summer holidays but one, I saw a lot of fossils ammonites and shells, ever so many different sorts, and belemnites 276 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. some quite loose and mixed up with the shingle and gravel and sand, a yard deep or more ; and I thought to myself, ' Why, this is just the way a gravel bed might be made ; and then if the sea was to go away, and hundreds and thousands of years afterwards men were to dig in here, they'd make just such a gravel-pit as I've so often wondered about; and there would be all these shells and fossils mixed up with these stones, little and big/ And you know, Minnie, it wouldn't be hard to find plenty of flints to mix up in the shingle, if a river was to run some day through that nice warren we crossed over on Saturday. And, where we were with Uncle Spencer last summer, we saw such lots of flints here and there in the solid chalk, which the sea was washing down for miles along. But it's getting quite dusk, and we are keeping your sister waiting." So they left the gravel-pit and began to turn their faces homewards, the sun having quite gone down a few minutes before. As they were walking along the silent turf, a noise Jack had never heard before, and Bob only once or twice, broke in amid the nightingale's song and the chant of the thrushes, and caused both boys to come to a halt. Jack's ever-ready, " What is it, Bob ?" was not slow in being spoken, and Bob's reply, given with as little delay on his |>art, was, NIGHTJARS. 277 " It's a nightjar, Jack. Isn't it a good name for it, nightjar ? and eve-churr or night- churr, too. Isn't it an odd jarring or churring note ?" " How do they make it, Bob ? Is it really a < note' ?" " Yes, I think so. At least I know I read once that one was heard making the noise as it sat on the housetop. So it must have been its ' voice' then, you know. I remember it, because it said it seemed to give a sort of tremble to the house, or the people in it felt as if it did. I think it's in the History of Selborne; such a nice book, I thought. It made me first like all about animals and things." "Why, there must be two or three of them about/' cried Jack. " Oh !" said Miss Benson, " there are plenty of them here. I have sometimes seen four or five on the wing together in a summer's evening here." " What are they doing ?" asked Jack. " Probably just not ' sitting down,' but flying about ' to dinner,' " broke in Mr. Benson, who had come up unperceived, and had heard the last ques- tion. " Perhaps doing a little love-making, too," he continued ; " for I have often seen two together when I've heard this churring long continued. Hark ! there's one very near us ; about those trees, I should say, catching a few ' sharded beetles,' I 278 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. dare say. You know ' dor-hawk' is one of their many names, all of which but one are as good and true as that one is false and absurd." " You mean goat-sucker, don't you, uncle ?" " Yes," he answered; " what a wonderful notion that was, to be sure ! Only matched, but really matched, by the notion about the poor little, small- mouthed hedgehog sucking the cows' teats as they lie down at night ! But come along, we must get home before it's quite dark. Ah ! there's a night- jar, and there's the other !" Roving on down the lane, they had nearly reached the swing-gate, when a pair of goat-suckers were heard churring alternately, and without pause, about two or three trees in the lane-hedges a hundred yards behind them. The party paused to listen more closely. After three or four minutes of continuous churring, that sound ceased ; and another, falling at regular intervals and rapidly drawing nearer to them, was heard in its place. It sounded just as if a fleet-footed boy, armed with a flexible stick well quilted with rag or other soft material firmly bound round one extremity, were running as fast as he could towards them, and for- cibly striking the turf every second or third step, with the padded stick. It was made by the goat- suckers ; for first one, and then the other, eight or ten yards behind the first, came flying steadily A STRANGE NOTE OR NOISE. 279 along the lane, very near the ground, until they came close to their observers, when they quickly swerved aside rising to clear the low hedge of the lane and then continued their flight, without the noise, in nearly the same direction as before ; and, two minutes after, commenced churring again round some other tall trees across a single field from the lane. The strange noise, its rapid approach, the ghost- like, noiseless flight of the birds, all concurred to excite Jack's imagination, and to make the little girl feel something like a cold shiver. Bob, however, was already plying Mr. Benson with questions. " Do they often make that noise, sir ?" " Well, Bob, I hardly know what to say. I'm not such a keen watcher of animals and their habits as you. But I have heard it before ; though not often/' " How do they make it, sir?" " Well, there I confess you puzzle me quite." " I thought it must be with their wings ; per- haps striking them against the ground." " I really do not know, Nephew Bob. Don't you think that would rather damage their wings ? Because they must have used some force to produce that sound." " Well, uncle, but the pigeons, called ' smiters/ 280 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. I think, what a noise they make with their wings, striking them against one another. And what claps ringdoves yes, and tame pigeons, too con- stantly make with their wings. It might be made with the goat-sucker's wings ; at least I think so. Though to be sure, as it came nearer to us it sounded as if it might be made with the voice. Well, I wouldn't have missed that for something. " And so ended the episode of the goat-suckers, and the remarkable incidents of the evening. A day of such interest could scarcely pass without a few comments from the cousins as they prepared for bed ; but they were quite sufficiently tired, as well as desirous to get to sleep soon on account of the early rising requisite in the morning, not to talk long. They were soon asleep, and awoke fresh and quite ready to turn out and wash and dress with all speed, a little before five the follow- ing morning. Breakfast was not ready quite as soon as they were ; but all was happily despatched, and the four travellers were all at the station five minutes before the train arrived which was to convey them over so considerable a part of their intended travels. There was no accidental in- fringement of the programme of the preceding morning, and they reached Flyton Mere in due time. For some distance, however, before they arrived PLYTON MERE. 281 wi thin sight of the sheet of water so called, it was sufficiently apparent that there must be a great haunt for the black-headed gulls or, as they are otherwise called, laughing gull, pewit gull, brown- headed gull, red-legged gull, black-cap, &c. at no great distance. They were to be seen in all direc- tions; and^where ploughing was going on, scores of them were collected, and busy as could be in following the plough and picking up the grubs and worms disclosed in its passage. After passing through a level country, and with no very remark- able features belonging to it, the party at length came in sight of a very considerable sheet of water, surrounded in most parts by copious growths of reeds and other aquatic plants, with a number of unhappy-looking willows and alders of little size dotted about in places. A closer approach per- mitted them to observe that in the centre of the Mere there was a large island, which, as they saw it from a distance, appeared to be quite overgrown with reeds, except where a few trees, of the same species as those on the water-edge, might have found space to grow. Mr. Benson knew that the right of collecting the gulls' eggs was rented by a man who lived in a cottage at no great distance from the Mere, and he immediately bent his steps in the direction of this cottage. Luckily enough, the man, James 282 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. Nunn by name, was just preparing to cross over to the island for the purpose of gathering the eggs; and he told the lads that they would very likely find several nests on the shore of the Mere, hut they must be careful where they went, or they would get themselves into a swamp. Pointing out to them one part where they would be tolerably safe, he went on himself with what he had to do ; and, that done, went down with Mr. Benson to where his flat-bottomed boat lay. Bob and Jack, in the meantime, had found no less than seven nests of the birds in question, most of them with the full number of three eggs in, and when hailed by Mr. Benson came up very full of their success. However, Nunn only smiled, and said a few words in a low tone to his grown-up passenger. They soon reached the island, and Nunn landed them while he himself went back to fetch over three stout lads who were to be his helpers in the work of collection. " The work of collection!" said Bob to Jack; " why, we've always made fun enough of it. And a man and three boys to do it ! Why, what can he be up to ?" Mr. Benson, smiling, bade them ask him when he came back, and in the meantime be careful where they trod. The caution was not unnecessary. There were hundreds of gulls sailing overhead with GULLS' EGGS. 283 their broken laugh-like note whence their scien- tific name of Larus Ridibundus and many others here and there at a lower level, some of which seemed inclined to have a near inspection of the materials of the intruders' hats and caps. But the boys soon thought that every bird they saw must have a nest, if not two each. Wherever there was an available space, there they saw a rude nest, made of reeds and their tops, each with a very slight cavity or depression in it ; and at least half of the nests had one, two, or three eggs in them ; but none more than three. When Nunn came back, Mr. Benson said to him, " These young gentlemen want to know why you call egg-collecting ( a work.' ' " Why, sir," said he, " it is a work to us. We sometimes collects a thousand eggs in a day ; and a thousand eggs in a day takes a deal o' picking up, as the young gentlemen would find if they tried it for a day or two/' " But what do you do with 'em all ?" asked Bob. "Why, you see, they's good to eat, and the gentlefolks likes to buy 'em. And so we takes 'em to market and sells 'em at about fourpence a dozen. And we keep on collecting for four or five weeks. The same birds lays three eggs twice or three times over. But I allays thinks the last egg-s as is laid is a deal littler than the first/' 284 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. Bob was not to be contented without making a few more inquiries, but found that he could not collect a great deal of information from the man he was questioning, inasmuch as the birds he was asking about only spent from the end of Feb- ruary to about midsummer at Fly ton ; and Nunn knew nothing about their habits and haunts at any other time of the year. He said the young birds left the nest as soon as ever they were hatched, and took to the water; and, when they were able to fly, left the place all together, with the parent-birds. The eggs, as they saw, varied very much in colour, as they had already heard they did, later in the season, in size. Some were thickly covered with dark spots, and others had no spots at all, or almost none, to variegate a light-blue, or dusky- yellow, or muddy-green, or faded-brown ground colour. When Bob asked the man if there were many other nests about on the island and the Mere, he replied that there generally were a goodish many of one sort or other , " They reed-chirpers," he said, " allays built there, and ducks and teal too* often. And he had seen a loon or two about, diffe- rent times, this year ; though he hadn't seen their nest yet. Some years there used to be a many on 'em ; and, now he thought of it, he knew o' one o' they skiddy- cocks' nests: some folks called 'em WATER-RAIL'S NEST. 285 runners. And it warn't far off, if they'd like to see it." Though quite in the dark as to what a ' skiddy - cock' or ' runner' might be, they were only too eager to see the nest in question ; and accordingly Nunn conducted them to it without delay. They had not far to go, and soon had the pleasure of seeing a nest built of coarsish sedges and withered flags, with the old leaves of the reeds intertwined, and placed in the midst of a dense growth of water- plants, with eggs in it, of a faint cream colour, indeed almost white. It was a prize, unquestion- ably, to our young egg-collectors ; and a few ques- tions addressed to the man drew out sufficient information as to the bird that owned it, to enable them to guess what a skiddy-cock must be. It flew like a moorhen, with its legs hanging down. It oftener ran, with strange quickness, between the reeds and sedges. It had some white under its tail, which it flirted much of a muchness with the moorhen. It could be no other than the water- rail. Mr. Benson and Fred had not accompanied the boys to their inspection of this new nest. In fact, they did not affect the oozy, watery, soft, some- what treacherous soil near the edges of the Mere, and the chief nurseries of reeds ; and so left the egg-hunting to those most concerned ; and who, 286 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. moreover, were equipped on purpose in their old nesting cords, with strong, tolerably waterproof lace boots, and gaiters up to the knees. But while the lads were away, Mr. Benson had noticed three or four birds hovering about over a part of the Mere at some distance beyond the point where they had first corne upon it, which, from their manner of flight, and shape of -wing, he was sure were not gulls. When the lads and their guide returned with their new eggs, Mr. Benson pointed these birds out to the man, and asked him what they were. " Well, sir," said Nunn, " I've noticed 'em dif- ferent times lately, and I expect they're what we call 'blue darrs' hereabouts. They've got long wings enough, and the tail shows a bit forked, but not so much as them birds as is called sea-swallows, but I expect they're the same sort like. It's my belief they've got a nest or two down there, but the ground's so rotten we can't walk it." " Can we land anywhere there, if you take us across in your punt ?" " Land ? oh, yes, for certain." " And we should not be far from the turnpike ?" " Why, not more than a field's breadth ; and a good place to land at, too." " Then will you be so good as put us across, and let us have a nearer look at these blue darrs, did you call 'em ? and then land us as near the EGG-BLOWING. 287 1 pike' as you can ? And I suppose these young gentlemen can take as many of these eggs as they like?" " They're welcome to pick 'em all over, and fill their tin canisters, if they like." So about a score were selected, and blown and carefully stored, Jack being, by this time, as great an adept at ' blowing' as Bob himself. In faci, this part of the work was so neatly done, that Nunn himself, as well as one* of the lads who had just before come up with a huge lot of eggs, looked on with no little interest as the boys made their neat small hole at the little end and then a larger one, but still very round and neat, near, but not ex- actly at, the larger end ; so that when an egg blown thus was put on its card, this hole being turned downwards, the whole shell appeared to be unin- jured. Part of the blowing and packing went on in the punt, and, by the time it was completed, the part of the Mere-bank suspected to hold the nests of the strange birds was reached. It was now seen that there were at least three pairs of the birds ; and Bob felt certain they were terns, and he supposed they must be black terns. Nunn had been at- tentively watching them for a minute or two now, and on speaking again, declared that he had no doubt, from their ways, that they had nests or were about making them. 288 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. " Oh ! can't we get out and look ?" cried Bob, very eagerly. ""Why, yes, young master, that you can, and in too, up to your waist, afore you knows anything about it. If I could get this here flooring up," tapping the bottom boards of the punt with his heel, as he spoke, te we might manage, mayhappen. It's i' two pieces, and lay one down and take t'other up, it 'ud do, I expect. I'll try, anyhow." Mr. Benson looked at his watch, which Bob threatened to throw into the Mere if it made out that it was nearly time to be at the turnpike ; but luckily it was barely ten yet. So Nunn, putting one leg over each gunwale, proceeded to try and loosen the flooring. It came up much more easily than he expected, or indeed wished ; for one of the nails it was fixed by, brought up a piece of the bottom of the punt with it, not very big, to be sure, but quite big enough to let the water bubble up in an interesting-looking little fountain. There was no help for it now, all hands must land, and the boat must be cobbled up temporarily. There was fortunately a space of bank, two or three yards in length by one and a half in width, which was dry and firm, though it shook sensibly enough when even Jack jumped out upon it. All passengers were speedily high and dry on this, and the punt drawn up and turned over on a somewhat softer BOB'S FLYING BRIDGE. 289 and lower place near. The mischief was consider- able, but admitted of temporary remedy ; and while Nunn was engaged about this, Bob had possessed himself of the flooring, and was proceeding to lay it down, and try if he could get along on it with one of the light oars in his hand to steady himself with in the way suggested by the boatman. He found it answered beautifully. The next step was to put down the second piece, which also was easily done. Then he tried to recover the first piece, but in doing this he had to stand on the end of the other piece, and it soon appeared to have a most disagreeable tendency to sink at that end, under the pressure of his weight and exertions. Nunn observed the dilemma, and called out to Bob, " 'Xcuse me, young measter, but yer must try another dodge nor that. Chuck that oar this way, and see if yer can kitch this here boathook. It's heavier, but a deal handier." Bob did as he was desired, and then Nunn con- tinued, " Now, you go back a bit, to the middle o' the plank ye're on, and hook t'other one to yer with the boathook. It'll draw fast enough." And so it did ; and Bob now had no difficulty in getting it laid : Jack, meanwhile, feeling a great inclination to go and help him, even if he did get up to the middle by such course, u 290 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. In the course of the ten minutes or quarter of an hour, during which the man was occupied with his repairs, Bob had investigated a space of nearly twenty yards square, but had found nothing but a water-hen's nest. "Now, Bob," cried Mr. Benson, when Nunn had announced that he ' thought she'd do now/ " come along, my boy. There's no nest there, I doubt. I believe it's too early in the season, yet. At least, Nunn seems to think it may be." But Bob's eye had caught a glimpse of something which might be a nest of some sort, though he, too, had given up the notion of finding a tern's nest. And he cried out, " Oh ! uncle, wait just a minute, please, till I lay the planking down again ; only just this once." It was laid, and Bob on it in another minute, but it was in much the wettest and softest place he had yet been over, in fact the water, as the board settled down under his weight, rose till it stood nearly ankle-deep in the middle. But he did not tarry long in a place, and soon reached the tufty, tussocky objects his eye was fixed on, and which put him very much in mind of those he and Jack had been among the day they found the bittern's nest ; only, to be sure, these were so much lower 'not half so much stalk to 'em,' as he said to himself and the bog between them was so very BOB TAKES A SEAT. 291 much boggier. Before he reached these tufts he saw that the nest-like object ivas a nest, and ' no mistake' ; and, another step forward, and he saw another a few feet to the right of the first ; and better still, that there were eggs eggs that he had never found before, and did not recognise from having seen them in collections in the one to which he was nearest. Turning round to announce the joyful intelligence with a cheery shout, his foot slipped, and down he came in a sitting posture with a decided splash, but luckily fairly balanced on the planking. His seat was much too wet and chilly for him to keep it any longer than was necessary ; and though hardly able, for laughing at his own mischance in fact, knowing the worst, he laughed much louder than his companions did he succeeded in getting up without further accident, and helped himself to the eggs. There were four, and this circumstance convinced him they were probably the black tern's eggs, it being the only tern that ever does lay four eggs. Having secured them, he began to retrace his steps, and, in a few minutes was safe with his friends, and once more in the punt, amid the propositions of Fred to ' wring him dry, Mr. Benson holding his heels, and he (Fred), his head'; to 'hang him up to dry behind the carriage as they proceeded to Sum- merton'; and various other and similar witticisms. 292 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. Bob, however, even if he had not been so thoroughly good-humoured as he was, had met with success enough to laugh at all such ' chaffing/ and besides settled the matter by slily advising Master Fred to 'try the same dodge' himself: " Watering things makes them grow, you know. Your whiskers might sprout directly, Fred." Satisfying, and rather more than satisfying James Nunn for his trouble and the eggs taken, they hastened to the turnpike, and found the carriage already there, with a hamper in it : glad sight to all four of the party, whose breakfast soon after five had not prevented decided symptoms of a vacuum from evidencing themselves in each of them during the last half-hour ; and, by the time they reached Summerton Broad, they were fully c victualled/ and ready for another ' voyage/ CHAPTEK XIII Summerton Broad Home-made Liggers Laying them No end of a Pike Bearded Titmouse and Nest Crested Grebe's Nest Drive Home. IT was by no means Mr. Benson's first visit to Summerton Broad. He had been there very frequently before ; not, however, as an ornithologist, or a naturalist in any sense, but simply as a gen- tleman who was rather skilful in the capture of the pike, and fond of putting his skill to the test of practice. In point of fact, he went to Summer- ton from time to time, as a sportsman in more senses than one. He owned property in the neighbourhood, and often went there to shoot. So that he not only knew all about the Broad, and what was requisite for a day's amusement on it, or in the neighbourhood of it, but where and how to obtain these requisites without either difficulty or delay. Accordingly, when the postilion drove up, accor- ding to orders, to a large, comfortable-looking 294 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF -HOLIDAYS. farm-house, from which the Broad was sufficiently visible, the occupant, Mr. Sparke, an old and valued tenant of Mr. Benson's, himself opened the gate for the carriage, and on its stopping, presented himself at its door, saying, as his landlord shook hands with him, " Well, sir, I am glad to see you and Mr. Fred ; and these young gentlemen with you too. The boat's all ready, and the baits too ; and real good ones they are. And there's a few good fish for the catching yet." "Thank you, Sparke," replied Mr. Benson. "We only mean to set a few liggers ; and then to have a hunt among the reeds and flags for bird's nests. Are there any of those loons about the Broad now?" " Oh ! yes, a good many. I have heard 'em every evening lately. Last night especially, their croaking cry sounded as if there was a rooks' preachment among 'em all talkers and no lis- teners." "Well, then, the sooner we get to work the better/' said Mr. Benson; and resisting all Mr. Sparke's urgent entreaties to go in and partake of refreshments ; at least, at present ; he led the way to the side of the Broad where the boat was drawn up in readiness for their embarkation. The party were not long in getting aboard ; and Fred and Bob began to pull in a certain direction, indicated MAKING FLOATS FOR LIGGERS. 295 by Mr. Benson. The Broad was a large sheet of water ; in fact, nearly as large as Fly ton Mere, but appearing to be three times its size : a deception no doubt due to the circumstance that there was no island, of two or three hundred acres in extent, anchored in its middle. It had all the peculiarities of those other sheets of water, named Broads : a large lake, in a flat, uninteresting, unvaried country, and at no great distance from the sea-shore, with plenty of fenny soil in its vicinity, and plentifully stocked here arid there with luxuriantly growing water-plants reeds, sedges, flags, and the like. While Bob and his cousin were doing the hard work of oarsmen, Mr. Benson and Jack were busy with a lighter task, which still was such as to require a degree of skill as well as care in its conduct. They were preparing what were to serve as their floats. Mr. Benson did not affect the fishing-tackle-shops' ' trimmer' floats, made of a disk of painted cork, with a wooden peg let through and notched at the end to hold the line until the bait was taken by the pike. He preferred, and greatly preferred the local means and appliances : though those were nothing but small bundles of reeds, tied firmly together at each end, and when properly trimmed, about twelve inches long, and with the line attached to their middle; the reed ends beyond the ties serving very well to hold 296 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. the line so that the bait might swim at any required depth. By the time the boat had been rowed to a given point, the two float or ligger-makers had got eight or nine completed, and the spare reeds and ampu- tated bits had been thrown over. Then came the task of affixing the lines to each : and then the operation of baiting a painful and cruel operation, the less said about which the better. In something more than half-an-hour, nine liggers or trimmers were artistically set, and tongues began to move more freely than they could do when every one was busy, and what words he did speak had to be words of inquiry or instruction, according to the person speaking. "Why do they call these sort of set-lines, ' liggers/ uncle ?" enquired Bob : " I never heard them called anything but trimmers, before." " Well, Bob, I believe there is a good reason. 'Liggers' is an old English word, and means if not is the same as Hers. To lig, for to lie, is in common use still in many of the eastern parts of the kingdom ; and I have heard it constantly used in Yorkshire, for instance. And the word ' ligger/ as used to denote a line that is laid, and is or lies stationary therefore, seems to me sufficiently descriptive." "Thank you, uncle; that's capital. Jack likes QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 297 that explanation, I'll be bound ; don't you, old fellow?" Jack did not at all belie his cousin's presumption, and the latter went on " Please, uncle, would you tell me why you left a foot more line hanging from some of the floats, than from others?" " Because, Bob, I was dropping them into the water where the depth was always varying, and I trusted partly to my local knowledge and partly to the experience I have got by many a day's practice here. Any other question, nephew?" " Yes, uncle : one. Why did you come right across here, instead of stopping nearer where we came to the water? As far as I could see, it looked as likely there as here." " But which way is the wind, Bob? Supposing I had stopped where you suggest, and had laid my liggers there, and no good-natured pike had taken them almost before our backs were turned, where would they all have been in five minutes' time ? 1 fancy, foul of the reeds and weeds. What think you now of my reason for coming over here before setting our trimmers?" " Well, I think I was a goose not to think of it for myself." During this conversation the boat, which had been propelled a score or two of yards to the wind- 298 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLT DAYS. ward of the little fleet of trimmers, had been kept in its place while they all continued to move slowly away from it : under the influence, of course, of the nice little breeze which was ruffling the lake famously for their purpose. " Well now, lads/' said Mr. Benson, " what is it to be? To the reeds for a bit of nest-hunting, and take up the liggers or such of them as we can find afterwards ? Or attend to the liggers ? Which shall it be?" Bob did not at first quite catch what was meant by ' such of them as we can find/ but a moment's thought showed him that if a hearty pike, named P, took the bait attached to the furthest trimmer on the left, and a middling pike, known as F, took one in the middle, and a more youthful but rather bumptious jack, christened p, took that to the right, while their backs were all turned ; and then P went more still to the left, and p to the right, and F out into the middle of the Broad ; it might be very possible to miss more than one of them after an hour's absence. And therefore he was just going to say " Wouldn't it be best to attend to the trimmers, sir?'* when Fred jumped up in the boat and sang out, " There's one taken, at all events the second on the left." The fact was evident enough. For several JACK TRIES AGAIN. 299 seconds together the reed-float disappeared alto- gether. Then it was towed along at the surface at a great rate for a score or so of yards. Then down it went again. Jack, however, and Mr. Benson were the only two to notice all these vagaries in detail. Bob and Fred were bending to their oars in capital style, Mr. Benson being helmsman. They soon came up with the vagrant ligger, and Jack reached down to catch it as they passed. The intention was better than the per- formance, however ; for just as he thought he had got it, it gave a sudden start away, as if the float itself was alive and had started from his hand; and before he recovered himself it was three yards away from the boat's side. "Here, Jack," said Mr. Benson, who had watched the disappointment with a bit of a smile, " take this gaff, and hook up the line with it next time ": the said gaff being Mr. Benson's walking- stick, which had been made the object of sundry sallies by all the lads on account of its length and seeming good-for-no-purposeness ; but which, now, after having had a sharp hook screwed into its thicker end, whence the knob had been removed, was converted into a most handy implement, Armed with this, Jack had no difficulty, at the next attempt, in getting hold of the line and hold- ing it fast notwithstanding the efforts of the pike ; 300 PLAY-HOUES AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. for the float prevented its slipping oil'. In a few seconds now the boy had the gratification of haul- ing in a good six-pound pike, and giving it a coup de grace on its head with a stout staff, which stilled its kickings and strugglings incontinently. On looking round, after this successful termina- tion of the first chase; it was seen that there were fish fast at two other of the trimmers. These two were followed up, and both fish secured ; neither of them being very heavy. There now remained in the water only six trimmers, five of which were seen to be pursuing the even tenor of their way across the Broad ; their several positions, relatively to each other, having sustained but little alteration since they were set adrift. The sixth, however, could nowhere be seen. After some minutes spent in attentively observing the face of the Broad, Fred, who had accompanied his father in many a former piscatory visit, and was rather ' up to the dodges' in use by fish and fishers, suggested taking a gentle row round the edge of the water weeds and reed beds, in such directions as it seemed possible the missing ligger might have been towed. His father's eyes, however, had been directed more than once, in earnest gaze, at a small patch of the lake about which he saw signs of a good many surface weeds growing, together with the tops of growing bulrushes and the like thrusting themselves upwards. Fred had looked SEEKING THE LOST LIGGER. 301 there, too, more than once, and had suffered his eyes to pass over the weed-bed in question from a tacit conviction that if the ligger had been there, it would have been easily visible. And so, when Mr. Benson said, in reply to his suggestion " I think we had better look over yonder patch of weeds first," he was ready to reply, " Well, father, if you wish. But it isn't there, or we should be able to see it." " Perhaps so, Fred. Still, I should like to be certain." No more was said, and eight or nine strokes of the oars got way enough upon the boat to send her up to the desired spot. As her bows pressed a little into the water-growth, a disturbance took place among the weeds and giant rushes, a little on her right bow, which convinced Mr. Benson at once that his idea was well-founded. It was that the fish, which had taken the bait of the missing ligger, finding himself ensnared, had made for this weed-bed for shelter, it being not very much out of the line of the advancing trimmers, and that on reaching it, he 'had urged himself in among the weeds with much force, and in doing so, had drawn the float under water among the weeds, which had thus prevented it from again rising to the surface. The disturbance continued. There was a tugging at, and yielding of the weed> 302 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. about a yard from the boat; and there was a plunging about among the weeds going on in a limited area about three yards further on ; that is, about the distance from the float which the length of line affixed to it would confine a hooked fish to. One of the oars was passed slantingly into the water between these two points of disturbance, and nearest to the first named, and then gently raised towards the surface. As the edge of its blade came into sight, the line was seen stretched across it, and, as it were, pulsating under the struggles of the fish; struggles which were now strong, and, indeed, violent. A little careful manipulation, and the float appeared, but as soon as it appeared, being now clear of the late impediments to its further motion, it was slipped over the oar in an instant by the efforts of the entangled pike, and again went under water. Its track, however, was plainly visible from the yielding of the water-weeds to its pas- sage ; and in about three-quarters of a minute, it was seen to rise to the surface once more, and to be dragged along with considerable velocity as the pike sped on again through clear water. " Give way, lads," cried Mr. Benson ; " steadily, steadily! not like that. There, that's it! A steady, even stroke. We shall be up with him in a minute or two. Now, Jack, this is too savage and strong a chap for you to engage give CHASING THE L1GGER. 303 me the gaff. And you lads, mind you obey orders/' " Ay, ay, sir/' responded Bob, as gruffly as he could. Mr. Benson shook his gaff at him, as he looked round, saying, as he, in his turn, assumed the im- puted character, " Take care I don't catch you a crack on the head with the marling-spike, youngster. Let's have none of your cheek here." And then, turning round again to the work before him, he waited till the rowers had urged the boat almost upon the fleeing trimmer, and then quickly and dexterously secured it and got the line into his hand. Soon to let it go again, however ! The pike was still much too strong to be brought to close quarters ; and, on feeling Mr. Benson's pull, gentle as it was, made a desperate plunge forwards and downwards. The buoyancy of the float, however, made that too hard to last, and up it came again. The boys obeyed Mr. Benson's orders beautifully. If the pike turned a little, the action of one oar was suspended accord- ingly in an instant; if more sharply, one held water or backed while the other pulled ; and thus the pike never got any advantage. At last the pace slackened greatly, and the float ceased to be drawn under at all as well might be the case, 304 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. seeing that, independently of Mr. Pike's struggles in the weed -bed, he must have run one way or other nearly three-quarters of a mile, arid always towing the ligger at speed. Mr. Benson got hold of the line again, and it was apparent that the pike was nearly spent. A minute or two more, and the gaff was applied to its legitimate purpose, and a pike as long as its captor's leg was lifted into the boat and speedily stunned by a well-applied blow on the head. Even Mr. Benson himself, with his fifty years, and his grey head and whiskers, could not help joining in the cheers which the lads gave forth at the successful issue of this long contest. Mr. Ben- son guessed the fish at twenty-five pounds; the steelyards, which weighed up to twenty-eight, almost reached their highest limit, but not quite. What a glorious success ! Even the nesting was forgotten. Bearded tits and crested grebes had fallen, for the time, into oblivion ! But not for long ; for, on pulling back towards the other trim- mers, no less than five loons were seen not a hun- dred yards distant ; besides one on the wing, which was making for the reeds on the right hand of the boat. On coming up with the remaining liggers, it was seen that one was fast, but evidently with a not very big fish at it. It was a jack of only about a pound. The other baits, on examination, were THE BEARDED TITMOUSE. 30o found to have been tasted and eschewed, and one was totally gone. However, there was much more inclination now to search the reeds than to reset the trimmers ; and so, in five minutes more, the boat was coasting slowly and quietly along the inner edge of the reeds and sedge beds. Mr. Benson had directed them where to go, and not without reason ; for his accustomed ear, while his companions were all much too occupied with their sport to listen for any sound, usual or unusual, had heard the clear, musical, ringing, but still soft sounding note of the bearded titmouse he thought, in two places. Five minutes after the boat had drawn near to the reeds it was heard again, about ten yards ahead. The oars were laid in as quietly as possible, and the boat was gently poled along by Fred. They were just close to the place whence the note had seemed to proceed. Bob's eyes glittered with the intensity of his scrutinizing gaze. A moment more, he shouted, " I see one !" And so he did, but only for a moment. It was hanging on a reed stem, back downwards, tomtit- wise, when he detected its form ; but, startled by his outcry, it slipped or (it almost seemed) dropped, rather than ran, down to the bottom of the stem ; and partly creeping, and partly flitting through the cover there afforded, was lost to sight in an instant. x 306 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. They remained perfectly quiet for a few minutes, and were at length rewarded for their quietude by seeing first one and then another, quite evidently male and female ; as was apparent from the strik- ing difference in plumage between the two, and especially from the want of the black colour in the moustache or whiskers in the female. It was there- fore decided that a diligent search should be made here for the possible nest of this pair ; and Bob was to land, if it should be found that he could do any good by that means. It was found on trial that, by great care in selecting places to put his feet, he might get along, at all events, for a space ; and so he got out, and began to work among the reeds on the bank side, while the boat was so manoeuvred on the other as to permit a close search from it also. "Where are you looking?" cried Bob, after a minute or two of silent search. " Among the reeds, to be sure," replied Jack. "I know. But whereabouts among them? High up, or low down ?" " Well, I think I haven't thought much about it. But I suppose I expected to find it, if we are so lucky, much where a reed-warbler's nest would be." "Well, but," replied Bob, "I don't think that's right. I almost think I remember reading that ON THE SCENT. 307 they don't build high up among the reeds, like those sedge-birds, but low down, in tufts of rushes, or among reeds that have got broken down. Do you know, uncle ?" " Nay, Bob, not I. But you'd better look in both places." And so they did, both of them ; and so did he and Fred too ; but no nest appeared. By this time Bob had got to a sort of fenny creek, or short arm running out of the Broad, and terminating in a considerable space of pure fen ; about the further part of which, moreover, willow bushes and aldergrowth were seen to prevail. He could get no further now, and he called to his companions in the boat to push through and take him in. Fred was already turning her head more in, in compliance with his cousin's request, when Mr. Benson called out " Hold hard, Fred ! All right," he continued, a second or two after, " I can take you to a grebe's nest, and one of the right sort, too, I have no doubt. Push in, and take your cousin aboard." Fred did so, but found it difficult to get to where Bob was standing, and so asked him to try and get a bit nearer to the boat. " Why, here's a nasty, soft place here," said the latter, " that'll let me in thigh deep, if I step on 808 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. it. Can't you unship me the rudder, and shy it here?" This was done, and a bridge was made for Bob ; who, however, had to stoop down a little in order to place it rather more conveniently. But while so busied, he saw something in a tuft of coarse water- grass which made him forget all about soft places and make-shift bridges ; and that was a deepish, or rather cup-shaped nest, built of withered sedges and dead reed-leaves outside, but with finer mate- rials, such as grass, dry bents, and the down of the reed inside; and in it, five delicate beauties of eggs, mainly white, but a little scratched as it were, with pale red. Didn't he sing out as he recognised the treasure ! Didn't he dance on the rudder-bridge and forget that, if he made a false step, it would be at the expense of a pair of fen- breeches that would be easier got into than out of ! However, no such catastrophe occurred, perhaps in consequence of Fred's rather malicious declaration that if he (Bob) preferred the bog, he couldn't ex- pect to be allowed in the boat. So he quieted his ecstasy, and took his eggs, and reached the boat, and recovered the rudder, and shipped it duly. And then they began to question Mr. Benson about his nest; where it was, how he came to find it, and how he knew it was of the " right sort." " Wait a bit, lads," he replied, " we'll have a FOUND. 309 look into it first. And then, if I'm right, I'll tell you all my little ' know' about the matter." And so they pulled across the little sort of bay to the reeds and growing bulrushes on the other side, where its edges so to speak returned into that of the Broad again. Mr. Benson directed the rowers to pass a little beyond a sort of projection or cape there formed very obtuse it was and to lay aside their oars as they did so; he himself regulating the motion of the boat with the boat- hook. The boys watched his movements with great interest. Still they saw nothing to explain these movements. True, there was a small heap of what seemed to be last year's water-weeds, discoloured and probably decayed or nearly so, just inside the barrier of reeds which separated the open water from the fenny bank : they had floated on, losing their connexion with the bottom by decay, and had been drifted in here and arrested by the growing reeds and rushes. That was clear Mr. Benson could not look upon that as a nest ! But Mr. Benson did look upon it as a nest, even though it was placed one would like to say, if one could with truth, built without any, even the slightest, regard to concealment. In point oi fact it was a pile of half-rotten weeds, only just not level with the surface of the water ; and wet, reeking wet, from the bottom, a foot below the 310 PLAY-HOURS AND H ALP-HOLIDAYS. surface, to the top, an inch or so above it. Still, a nest it was, and a nest of the crested grebe or loon, as commonly called on these waters into the bargain. And moreover, there was the full number of four white eggs in it, or rather on it : for the depression in the almost utterly un modelled upper part of this nest-pile was a very slight one. Still, these eggs were not lying glaringly exposed in all their whiteness but the more striking from its contrast with their dusky bed to the eye of any passing crow, or other predatory creature, feathered or featherless : they were covered, carelessly one would be apt to say not very correctly but still covered with fragments of rushes strewed over and about the nest so as to conceal them. Probably the last egg laid was not twenty-four hours old; for it and another were still purely white : while the other two were only faintly tinged with incipient cream colour, that would in a few days, no doubt, have become a dingy brown. Two eggs were taken with the customary honours ; and then Mr. Benson, as he resumed his place at the stern of the boat, was called on for an explanation of his discovery, and of the way in which it had happened. " Just as you called out to be taken on board, Bob/' he commenced, " we in the boat had pushed HOW TO KNOW A LOON FROM A PIKE. 311 partly round and partly through a sort of project- ing screen formed by last year's reeds and flags, which, up to that moment, had concealed this part of the bank from us, and us from it. At that very moment I caught a glimpse of something dis- appearing from behind what has turned out to be a nest. I suspected it was a loon, and that it had just left its nest. I'll tell you why. You know I have seen this Broad, and the loons on it too, a good many times before to-day, and I do know a little about one or two of their ways. Indeed, I have been more than once deceived by them in former days, for in one of their habits they are apt to pass themselves off upon an inexperienced person for pike. I mean, that when disturbed among sedges or reeds they almost invariably dive, and you see the sedges or reeds moving as they progress, very much the same as if it was a pike making off. The difference is, that they do not move so rapidly as the fish, and with more even ness or steadiness of motion. Knowing this, I waited just now to see if the reeds moved in the correct or orthodox style, and seeing that they did, I no longer felt any doubt that this heap of rotting weeds would turn out to be a nest. And that's the end of my ornithological lecture the only one I ever attempted up to this time to deliver." Mr. Benson's ' lecture' was quite sufficiently 312 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. well received to have given him courage to repeat it on the first suitable opportunity ; though we do not know if it has yet occurred, or is likely to occur. After this, the boat was pulled leisurely along as near the edge of the weeds as the latter would allow ; and before long, they had an excellent op- portunity of observing some of the proceedings of the bearded tit. These little birds there were four to be seen at once within a space of three yards long by one wide were tame enough to let them approach, (provided only they kept themselves quiet,) within a boat's length ; and, notwithstand- ing such vicinity, they continued to go about their daily business as unconcernedly as if they had had the entire Broad to themselves. They crept up the upright stems as easily as the swallow wheels and darts through the air. Once a small hawk passed over within a few yards of where they were at work; their shrill, tinkling, musical cries were heard for a single second, and then they were all lost among the covert at the bottom. They were soon aloft again, though, and as busy as before ; apparently taking insects and picking off small aquatic molluscs which had affixed themselves to the dry reed stems. The senior of the party, and even the young gentleman who had no particular love for birds roast partridges and pheasants, per- AGREEABLY OCCUPIED. 313 haps, excepted were greatly amused while watch- ing the proceedings and the apparent fearlessness of these pretty little birds; while Bob and Jack were quite enraptured. However, even the plea- sure of watching bearded tits must come to an end, and Mr. Benson had to pipe all hands to quarters. The two lads soon began to pull steadily across for the landing-place, and reached it nearly twenty minutes before the time fixed for the horses to be ready for the return journey. These twenty minutes were partly spent in Mr. Sparke's parlour; and very agreeably so as certainly three of the party thought in pitching in, rather extensively, into ' no end ' of a ham, home-made bread to match, and home-brewed that made one wink but to look at it and the head it carried, in that old- fashioned, brown stone-jug. In fact, Bob confessed that he had not only made the ' stunningest' supper on record in his private annals, but that another glass of beer would probably have fully developed the ' yard of clay ' which was the natural and ne- cessary accompaniment of such a jug and such beer as that ; and the germ of which he already felt conscious of, somewhere between his left hand and his lips. Then came the shakings of hands and good- byes, and the getting into the carriage, which speedily rattled off at a good round pace. They 814 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. were to be driven to Sharpham station on the East- Saxon Line, to catch the seven o'clock up-train ; and for this they had an hour and a half good, for thirteen miles over good and level roads. That done, they would be at home by half-past eight, or a little after. Joyously they sped along ; the feet of the active horses making a pleasant, measured cadence, as they fell, in rapid time, on the firm road. The evening was as pleasant as the day had been; and the rest of being whirled along, with nothing to care for or be anxious about, after the long day of exertion and excitement, was positively de- licious. Everybody in the party seemed to be almost sorry as the station came in sight, and they felt that that pleasant drive had come to an end. The station reached and their tickets taken, they had still some ten minutes to wait, and then came the roll and roar of the train, with the clatter of the piston-rods, transmitted so strangely from car- riage to carriage. It was dark when they reached their destination, and the four fellow-passengers had been very silent for the last hour ; and it seemed, did not, for some reason, think the journey tedious. They shivered a little, too, on leaving the warm carriage and stepping on to the platform. But still they were not too cold or too tired to stop for several minutes, in the course of their walk to AT HOME AGAIN. 315 Mr. Benson's house, in order to listen to the shrill, loud, rather startling and plaintive cries or whist- lings of the Norfolk plover. Arrived at the house, their fish the fish of all, especially were exhibited, the eggs produced, their battles fought over again, and nests re-dis- covered, over the cosy cup of tea which served as a preface to the foot-baths of hot water, and the comfortable beds, which were ready to receive and refresh them upstairs. And so ended this memor- able Tuesday. CHAPTEE XIV. Practice with the Casting-Net Snaring Jack Talk about Nets Nesting Ramble Nightjar's Nest and Eggs "Waterhen's Nest in an Ivied Tree Blackcap's, Bullfinch's, Common Buzzard's, Sparrow-Hawk's, and Tawny Owl's Nests and Eggs. IT was nearly half-an-hour later than usual when, the next morning, yesterday's travellers took their seats at the breakfast-table. Fred tried hard not to seem still tired, but in vain. His office habits had scarcely fitted him for such a long day of exertion as he had spent in the Fly ton and Sum- merton excursion. Bob and Jack, however, espe- cially the former, seemed as fresh as when they first reached Mr. Benson's house, but then their long rambles and active habits and pursuits on all suitable occasions, had done very much in strength- ening their muscles and tightening their sinews ; and a rather longer it could hardly be said, sounder night's rest than usual, particularly when reinforced by the capital breakfast they proceeded to make, fully prepared them, if need were, for FEED A LITTLE THE WORSE. 317 much such another day's exercise as yesterday's' had been. Poor Fred could not help giving himself rather a significant stretch, and looking pensively at the palms of his hands, usually soft and smooth, and telling of close contact with little save kid gloves, but now roughened and red, at least in places, and with more than one very tolerable attempt at a blister on them. " Poor fellow !" said his elder sister. " I doubt you are repenting of yesterday's regardlessness. Are you very stiff and tired ?" " Tolerably, Lucy. But I wish it was coming over again. I did enjoy it. It was as jolly a day, altogether, as ever I had. I know I'd rather go at it again to-day, than up to London to-night/' Mr. Benson had heard the latter part of this colloquy, and was the next to speak. " Well then, Fred, what is it to be this morn- ing? "Your cousin must have his day of nesting, and I have a list of a dozen different nests, or rather nests of different birds, that are known of, and to which he and Jack can be taken straight, if they like. But they have this afternoon and to- morrow morning for that, if you can join them in anything this morning." " Well, father, I think, if they don't care about nesting this morning, I should like to go quietly 318 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. down to the river and do a little bit of fishing. I could manage that, I think. What d'ye say, Bob? And you, Jack?" " All right, old fellow," was "Bob's reply ; " any- thing for a quiet life." Poor Bob's effort at the look and tones of a resigned victim was a melancholy failure, judging, at least, by the grins which graced his cousins' faces : I mean his male cousins, of course. And so, seeing how little his self-sacrifice was appre- ciated, he jumped up from the table, bolted through the open window on to the lawn, took a run and cleared the sunk fence in front, and then laugh- ingly shouted to Fred and Jack that he'd ' give them sixpence each to do that as neatly as he had/ Rather to his surprise, Fred accepted the challenge, but unhappily came to grief in the leap, as his foot slipped in alighting, and he himself, in consequence, measured his length on the smooth soft sward. Jack, in his turn, walked coolly to within some seven or eight paces of the edge of the ' ha-ha,' and then, taking a short, quick run, deposited himself safely on Bob's side, his leap being only two or three inches short of that worthy's. And then, he quietly held out his hand for the promised six- pence. " There it is, you lathy flea's hopeful, you. It's a reg'lar do. I wonder you an't ashamed of touch- CASTING-NET PRACTICE. 319 ing the tin. If Fd a thought you could have done it, I'd have asked you to pick up that fallen hero, first." Jack laughed, as those who win can, and then drew near to Fred to render him the help suggested by Bob. Mr. Benson appeared on the scene just then, with an equipment which drew speedy attention upon him, and was much more effectual than all Bob's quizzing and Jack's pulling towards getting Mr. Fred on to his pins again. For he had a net over his arm, which Bob as well as Fred knew well enough as to its name and uses, but which was an object of much speculation to town-bred Jack. " Look here, boys/' said Mr. Benson, " if you are going down to the river, I'll go with you for an hour, and we'll see what we can do with the cast-net. Can you throw it, Bob ?" " Dare say I could, sir : only, like the Irishman, I never tried but once, and then I forgot the net." "Well, I'll show you. Come up here. This isn't a bad place for a little ' dry' practice. Fred can throw fairly for a boy, and I think you would soon get the knack." So Mr. Benson showed the two schoolboys how to fold and arrange the net, how to whirl it, when ready, on to their left arms, how to manage the cord attached to the narrow end of the net, and at 820 PLAY- HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. its other extremity, to the arm of the caster, and then throw the net over a patch of green grass on the gently sloping pasture-bank beneath them. Fred then went through the same evolutions, and made his cast ; but the lead-line was not fairly expanded, and besides instead of falling nearly in a perfect circle assumed a shape which Jack pro- nounced to be that of an * irregular four-sided figure/ A second attempt, however, produced happier results, and then the net was handed over to Bob. He imitated the preliminary proceedings of his uncle and cousin excellently well, and then essayed to make a cast which was to show them how he could do it when he had the opportunity of trying. But, strange to say, some part of the pre- parations had been defective : the line, or the net itself, refused to be flung clear of the caster's person ; and its weight and impetus together, applied a force he was little able to resist, and con- sequently, he half-leaped, half was pulled down, in immediate sequence to the fall of the net itself. He was not long in recovering himself and it, and in returning to the ' coign of vantage' presented by the top of the sunk fence. A second trial issued in a fair delivery of the net, but an exceedingly foul ' cast ;' the net scarcely opened at all, and, so far as it did open, it was something after the pat- tern of a mutilated star-fish. Throw No. 3, was STORE -FISH WANTED. 321 better, but still a failure. Throw No. 4, was as bad a mull again as ever, but No. 5 was a success. Jack refused to try, alleging that he was not strong enough. Fred preferred sitting in a commodious garden chair under the weeping ash, and laughing as heartily as his stiffness would allow at his cousin's failures and perseverance. So, when Mr. Benson came back, after a quarter of an hour's absence about some business he had to attend to before leaving the house, he found that his nephew was, although his jacket had been off for some time, in a state, certainly, of considerable warmth, as well as able to make two passable casts out of three with the net in its present dry state. " Well done, Bob," he cried, as he saw a very fair cast accomplished ; " it would not be long be- fore you would succeed in throwing well. You shall try a cast or two in the river, if you like. Only don't chuck yourself in after the net, you know/' So the party proceeded to the river, followed by Mr. Benson's groom with the tub of a garden- engine and a couple of pails. The fact was, Mr. Benson's residence stood near the site of an ancient conventual establishment ; and, separated from his garden by what was called the c Walnut-tree Walk' a double row of noble walnut-trees, hardly long enough now to be called an avenue was, (as is so often found in such vicinities) a series of ponds 1 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. that had been a great resource, doubtless, to the cowled brethren of old. Two of these ponds were well stocked with carp and tench ; and in the upper of the two there were also some trout, intro duced by Mr. Benson himself, and which had grown to a very considerable size. The lower pond, however, had been for long partly grown up, and Mr. Benson had lately been at the trouble of clearing it out. It was now full of water again, and he intended to stock it with pike, and of course to introduce a sufficient number of roach, dace, and the like, to keep up the breed as well as supply present food to the pike. And hence the formid- able array which formed ' the tail' of the procession now on its way to the river bank. Mr. Benson proceeded first to a hole of no great depth in which he had more than once lately ob- served a couple of small pike basking, but they were not to be seen this morning. Just above this there was a part of the stream well known to Fred as well as his father, as a capital swim for roach and dace, and here the net was thrown first. The result was eleven roach and a dace, which were duly con- signed to the tub. Another throw ten yards higher produced five more roach and a couple of minnows, and then Bob tried his hand. But he could not, at first, get the net to spread at all in its wet state. And so the first three attempts he made resulted in nothing but great splashes. But FHED STARTS AN IDEA. 323 he persevered, and, as usual with persevering folks, presently met with a commencement of success. The net opened to about two-thirds of its full ex- tent and fell with tolerable evenness upon the water, and was found, on being drawn out, to enclose two dace and two roach. Jack and Fred had disappeared during Bob's apprenticeship to the craft of throwing a cast- net, without saying a word to anyone; and it will be as well to follow their steps. These had led them rather speedily for Fred under the inspiration of a new idea, had forgotten his stiffness so far as to break into a longish trot on the return path to the house. He went in through his father's open study-window ; from the study, through a passage, into a room generally called the gun-room, and there had opened a plain deal cabinet which filled a recess on one side of the fireplace. Next, opening a drawer in it, he selected a small coil of very fine brass wire, and then took down his own trolling-rod. Jogging off with these articles, he and his companion were soon back in the same field whence they had returned to the house. The point in this field from which they had retraced their steps in the way we have noticed, was the side of a ditch running into the river, and over which Bob and his uncle had crossed, but a minute or two before, by a plank laid across to serve as a 324 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. bridge. It was at the very end of this bridge that Fred's idea had occurred to him, and it had caused him to whisper to his companion, "I say, Jack, I don't believe they'll get any young pike such as my father wants. He'll be sure to keep Bob at work, instead of going quietly to work himself; and the consequence will be they'll miss the jack. Let us get them some." And, telling the groom to leave them a pail there, they started as aforesaid. Jack was curious enough to know what Fred proposed to do. "Snare 'em/' said Fred, concisely. And all Jack's further inquiries were replied to by, " Wait a bit, and you'll see, old chap." So Jack waited till they got back to the bridge and the pail. Fred's rod had been put to- gether long before they reached this point, and then Jack saw him break off a few inches of the wire, and, twisting a neat eye in one end of the severed piece, put the other end through it so as to form a running loop. The wire was then firmly attached to the trolling-top-end, and Fred began his career up the ditch already mentioned ; leaving the river, entirely, of course, in order to do so. This ditch was some eight or nine feet wide, about two feet deep apparently, fringed on either side with flags or sedges, not as yet very high or thick in their new growth, and with the old ones, more- SNARING PIKE. 325 over, not quite fallen down. There was scarcely any current in it, the water was quite clear ; there were a few small beds of weeds here and there seen rising from the bottom, and there were many pollarded willows dotted along its margin. Fred walked very quietly along the side of this ditch, peering intently into the water as he moved, and carrying the rod with the point advanced, but not elevated much above the level of the bank. After proceed- ing thus for about fifty yards, he said, in a quiet voice to Jack, who was at his elbow with the pail, " I see one, Jack ! A beauty \' 9 Jack, who had never before trained his eye to look for a pike at rest in the water, was slow to catch sight of it, And various directions as to distance from the bank, and depth in the water, and nearness to this flag or that weed, had to be given before he at length succeeded in clearly dis- tinguishing it. And then he saw the rod very steadily advanced, till the point was nearly over the quiescent jack, but so that the wire noose, which was bent downwards from the end, touched the water an inch or two in front of the creature's nose. Down, down it went, steadily, gradually, into the water, until the operator believed it was sufficiently deep to pass over the head of the jack without touching or alarming him. The experi- ment succeeded : the noose passed over his head 326 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. behind his first fins, and then, with a quick but steady lift, it tightened round him, and out he came, struggling and reluctant, from his native element. He was soon released from the snare and put into the pail, now three parts filled with water. A few steps further, another of about the same size was observed, and the same evolutions were gone through in his case also. And then came Jack's turn to try his hand. A fish scarcely so big as the preceding two was espied, and there was a convenient tree for the experimentalist to steady himself against the while. But he could not contrive to hit the exact depth, and in trying to pass the noose over the jack's head he rubbed it against its nose. The jack backed a little, but did not move far. His namesake made a second attempt, and as awkwardly as before ; and the fish now took the hint and dashed off, frightened and indignant. Again another was observed, and over his nose the noose was successfully passed, but not far enough, for when the attempt was made to lift him out, he was brought a few inches above the surface and then fell back, from the noose slipping off his snout. Indignant with himself at these repeated failures, Jack when Fred Benson positively refused to take the imple- ment into his own hands again until his friend had succeeded, at least once determined that his next JACK'S DEBUT IN SNARING. 327 attempt should be made with the utmost care and circumspection. The opportunity came sooner than he had expected. He himself detected the head and shoulders (the rest of the body being concealed by weeds) of a jack of more than twice the size of any seen hitherto, and regulating all his movements very cautiously, and with a word or two of suggestion from Fred, he actually succeeded in lifting the fish triumphantly from the water. He took it to the pail, and could not but stay to look at it at his leisure, while Fred went on and caught a fourth and a fifth, which he had seen lying so near together that he had not thought it worth while to go to the pail with the first until he had secured the second also. Filling the pail up with fresh water, the two lads went on to overtake Mr. Benson and Bob. On coming up with them, it was found that a few perch, and some additional roach, dace, and minnows had been added to the stock already in the tub ; but only one very small jack. And then it was for the successful ensnarers of the fish in question to declare the results of their endeavours. Mr. Benson sneered at them as " poachers," was "ashamed to think his own son could so demean himself/' and so on; but nevertheless sent the groom back forthwith with the big tub to give the captives the benefit of abundance of water. The 828 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF -HOLIDAYS. netting did not go on long after this. Mr. Benson made two or three more casts, which were suffi- cient to nearly half fill the pail that was left with them, and then they all began to retrace their steps. As they walked along, Jack said to Mr. Benson, " Is it really poaching to snare pike, sir ?" " Why, yes, I should say it is, Jack. Certainly if anybody else went into my field as you and Fred have been doing, I should think it poaching ; and so would any one who had the exclusive right of fishing any piece of water. It would be certainly unsportsmanlike in any one to do it, except with special permission, or on his own property, and for some such purpose as ours has been this morning. But there is no doubt a good many jack are taken that way, as well as by trimmers, by people who certainly can be called nothing but poachers." ' ' Would it be very difficult to make a casting net, uncle ?" inquired Bob, after a short pause. " Oh ! no ; not the least, if you have a pattern, or know the plan. If you can net well, and observe how this is made, and the number of stitches round the mouth and in the length, and how the narrowing is managed, you might make one as easily as a rabbit net." "What other nets have you, sir? I mean NETTING A COW. 329 besides the drag-net which you spoke about just now." " Oh ! I have a bow-net or hoop-net, which is sometimes, too, called a bottle-net I believe : and I have a net which is set for fish to strike into and entangle themselves, often used in dragging a river, or part of a river rather. I have heard it called a set-net, a hang-net, and a standing-net. And I have also a partridge-net, wljich we don't generally use in the water, Bob." " Oh ! don't you, uncle ? Well, I'm glad I know that. I didn't know before though that you were a partridge-netter, either in or out of the water." "Well, to admit the truth, I am not. But my old cow the one I mean with the ' crumpled horn' that looks as if it meant to grow into her forehead made me a present of it last September twelvemonth. And it is a grand one too, made of silk, though rather damaged by old Meggie's horns and hoofs." " Whatever do you mean, uncle ?" cried Bob. " I mean just what I say, nephew. There were two coveys of partridges in the habit of spending the night ' jucking,' our folks hereabouts call it in my pasture, on the other side of the garden ; and Meggie and Roan had the same habit. A certain vagabond of a cobbler, who has since gone 330 PLAY-HOUttS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. abroad at his country's expense, knew about the partridges ; and the cows, too, 110 doubt. Intend- ing to net the former, he caught the latter; by what extraordinary awkwardness or accident, we are not very likely to discover. He wouldn't say a word about it when ' lagged ' for sheep stealing, though I tried him myself. I fancy he was utterly ashamed of such a strange faux pas for an accom- plished poacher. Well, Meg didn't like the net perhaps she didn't like the netters, and went at them, and so caught herself and she began to run and to bellow ; and Roan was unwilling to be out- done, and so followed suit lustily. Then old Jupiter took it up, and made such a dm below my window that I got up and opened it. I heard quite enough to convince me something was ' up ' which ought not to be ; for, in addition to the noise of the cows and dog, I heard a very heartily given string of curses. In five minutes' time I was in the pasture, with James and Thomas following me ; and, in five minutes more, we had the cow under hand, and succeeded in removing the net from her horns and legs. And that's how I came by my partridge net, for I did not advertise it and proffer to return it on payment of expenses." Mr. Benson was just entering his house as he said the last words, and he told Bob and Jack to go in with him into the gun-room. Opening a HOOP-NET. 331 sort of large press or closet, he showed them the net in question, which was of considerable length : and near it hung the drag-net, and near it again the hang-net. In one corner stood the hoop- net by itself. This, by its strange shape, rathei puzzled the boys. They perfectly understood the uses of the drag-net; and of the other, composed in point of fact of three several nets, of the same superficial dimensions, and secured to the same corks above, and the same lead-line below; one net, betwixt the other two, of smaller meshes, and the outer ones of large meshes; so that a fish strik- ing it with force might easily drive a portion of the inner net through one of the big meshes of the out- side net, and thus bag himself up very effectually. And they easily comprehended how frightened fish, especially, might be easily caught thus, and par- ticularly if it were used at night. But how a net, strained over a light cylindrical framework of wood with circular hoops at each end and in the middle, and with its tapering ends turned inwards at either extremity, and so secured reminding them of an hour-glass with the ends out, or of an old-fashioned double egg-cup ; how such a net could be of any use was an utter perplexity to them. And they were scarcely willing, at first, to believe that such a net, with a few flowers put into it, and a piece or two of glass or other glittering substance, would 332 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. really be the means of catching tench, and some- times carp. It was easy to see that a fish, who swam into the hollow cones at either end, might, if he chose, penetrate with no difficulty at all into the interior, and find it as impossible to make his way out again as a mouse from the old wire mouse-trap with entrances constructed on the same principle ; but how fish could be such fools as to go in at all, they could not make out. Mr. Benson could not throw much light on the sub- ject. He supposed tench had a considerable bump of curiosity developed ; and that they went in at the ends quite as much to see where they went to, and what they were like, as under any attraction from the flowers. But it was quite undeniable that they did go in. Early dinner was ready not very long after this inspection of the nets ; and after that, the two Elmdonites went down with their cousin to the station, with the intention of walking back and nesting on their way. Mr. Benson had already instructed a man, called Simon Mothersole, (who was known as ' half a natural ' in the village, but who was very knowing and clever about birds' nests, and as an attendant on a shooter to mark and carry the bag,) to look up all the nests he could find ; and now he sent him word where to meet the lads. On their return he was duly waiting for SIMON'S LIST OF NESTS. 333 them at the appointed place a stile ; on getting over which, they found themselves in a footpath which led on to the common signalized by the chase of the rabbit by the weasels. Simon, who was already familiar with Bob, and seemed in his simple way to have a great regard for him, welcomed their arrival with exceeding glee ; and, drawing out an old pocket-book, with a funny kind of mystery about the whole proceeding, extracted from it a dirty looking slip of paper, which he handed to Bob though not till after he had carefully returned the pocket-book to its home saying, in a thin, jerking, odd-toned voice, as he did so, " There, Mister Robert, there, see ye there. 1 knows of all they neestes. I knows the erdenticle spots where them is, ivvery one on 'em. And them strokes shows how many neestes of a sort I knows on." It was a goodly list indeed ; written in a quaint, round, irregular, detached rather than straggling hand or style, but still legible enough. It began we prefer our own orthography, and omit the nests, with an exception or two, the boys had already met with ; it began as follows, " Fern-owl," two strokes being subjoined : and it went on, "red-linnet, two; grey-linnet, four; moor- hen, four one in a tree ; puttock, one ; sparrow- hawk, one; wood-owl, two; olph, one; French 334 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. partridge, two" ; the omissions comprising 1 nearly as many more varieties yet. Bob was perplexed about ' olph' ; also about ' put- tock', which he believed was applied to three or four different birds of the hawk kind ; and he was not quite clear about wood-owl; though he was inclined to infer that the brown or tawny owl must be meant. The furze-chat also was mentioned, but that he had no doubt was the whin-chat. Hay- chat, too, was down, but that he believed would turn out to be a white-throat. The name black- cap had been put in, but subsequently smeared out. After the lads had read this rude list over, Simon whispered to them though there was nobody any- where in sight that he had " marked out one ; did they see ?" " Yes," said Bob. " But why, Simon ?" " Cos' I weren't sure like. I see a bird sitten on, and it weren't a black headed one no more nor me." And Simon laughed as he took off his old battered hat, and showed hair as white and as soft as flax. " What's an < olph,' Simon?" But Simon was no hand at description ; and though he could have told himself that such and such a bird, as far as he could see it, was an olph or a something else, from some peculiarity or other his oddly patched-up mind had become firmly im- FERN-OWL'S NEST. 835 pressed with, he could not at all succeed in con- veying his ideas to another. And then there came out another little bit of psychology which both boys ignorant as they certainly were that any such long word could apply to anything under their notice observed with interest as well as surprise. Simon was leading them on at a steady pace, by no means slow, in a given direction. " Where are you taking us ?" asked Bob. " To the fern-owl's neest first. It's close to. Then we'll go to two o' they linnets. Nexin to them is a furze-chat's. Nit fur from that, another linnet's, and then I'll tell ye more when I git there." And as he mentioned each nest in its turn, he pointed out the direction in which it lay, and his companions saw that he had a perfect scheme, or map, in his head, on which was jotted down the relative position of each several nest he had named in his list. They were not long in coming to the first fern- owl's place for laying. It could not be called a nest; for nest accurately speaking there was none. A little hollow in the light soil, not very far from the bottom of a gorse bush, with nothing to conceal it or shelter it, contained the two beau- tifully marked eggs of the goatsucker ; and the other so-called f nest' of the same bird, to which they were taken half-an-hour later, was much the 836 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. same in all respects, except only that it was not even near a bush, nor yet a few bits of dry fern. They came upon one of these birds too, which ap- peared to be enjoying the warmth of the sun ; and it lay till Jack was almost close upon it, and made him jump no little by the suddenness of its flight from, apparently, just under his feet. The linnet's nests were looked at, all of them being, as Bob well knevy, of the same sort; though schoolboys often make an unreal distinction from seeing some- times the male with his red head (or poll) near the nest, and sometimes the hen with her duskier plumage. The furze-chat's nest turned out as Bob anticipated ; but the so-called hay-chat's proved to be a sedge-warbler's; the name being derived, doubtless, from the materials of the nest, dry bents and grass, bearing a strong likeness to the bleached hay from the outside of a stack that has stood a few months exposed to sun, rain, and wind. Leaving tha common, Simon conducted them through the very meadow which had witnessed the death of the rabbit, and to the very edge of the river. Stopping at the foot of an alder tree which was quite overgrown with ivy, he gave a peculiar sort of half chuckle, half laugh, but not at all noisy, as he struck the ivy with his stick ; and, re- sponsive to his knock, a water-hen fluttered out, flew twenty yards down the river, and flirted her BLACKCAP'S NEST. 337 tail as she dropped on the water, and swam under cover of a thick bush at the bankside. Climbing up in succession, the boys saw she had a very snug nest, and not a very small one either, in the heart of the ivy, containing no less than eight eggs. Next, crossing over the foot-bridge, he took them along a footpath through three or four fields, that brought them to within a hundred yards of the great gravel-pit. This path led close by a cottage, with a garden and orchard attached, and that seemed to be the residence of a carpenter by the wood set up to dry near a workshop at one end of it. He went into this garden without hesitation, and seeing the two lads rather doubtful about fol- lowing him, he bade them " come on ; his mother lived there, and his brother worked in the shop." And there, in a large-sized barberry bush, at about four feet from the ground, he showed them the nest he had been so doubtful about. However, his doubts seemed to be removed all at once as he drew cautiously nigh to the bush, for the bird on the nest really had a black head. It was the male taking his turn at sitting; and poor Simon had only seen the female, with her dull russet head, when he had gone out to look, just after writing the name down. Crossing the common, he struck into one of the woods they had noticed the evening they visited z 338 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. the gravel-pit. He only penetrated about ten yards, however, and then stopped close to a large and thick blackthorn bush, and in it pointed out to them a nest formed of small twigs and lined with fibres of one sort or other, by no means very strongly or closely compacted, and containing four eggs of a pale blue, spotted and streaked with pur- ple, of a dark hue and of a fainter shade. This was the olph's nest. Bob conjectured now what an f olph' was ; namely, a bullfinch ; and was much delighted at being able to add the eggs to their collection. One of the puttock's nests was the next stopped under. This also was not far from the margin of the wood, built in the fork of a tree ; and, as far as appearance went, it might have been a crow's nest from the fashion and materials of its con- struction sticks roughly intertwined, and the whole lined with a quantity of flocks of wool. But the eggs were undoubtedly the common buz- zard's ; dirty white in colour, smeared and blotched with dull red. The sparrow-hawk's was next visited. It seemed hard to believe that this had not once been a crow's nest ; and indeed it pro- bably had. It yielded three eggs to the young collectors' store. They were beautiful specimens of the sort : one of them having the large end en- tirely covered with the dusky red which only blotched and stained the other two, somewhat TAWNY-OWL'S NEST. 339 sparingly, upon their pale, milk-blue ground. The tawny owl's nest, in the sheltered hollow of a tree, was the next looked at; and it, too, was made to surrender a portion of its contents ; which, on blow- ing as usually happens with owls' eggs were found to be in different stages of progression to- wards hatching. Bob and his cousin were unwilling to disturb the French partridges' nests without special permission, and therefore turned their faces homewards after they had duly blown their eggs ; congratulating themselves greatly on the important additions to their collection which their visit to Cotherstone had enabled them to make. Great work had they after they got back, in packing their eggs so that they should travel safely ; and greatly interested they seemed to be in the history of poor Simon, his pur- suits and prospects ; particularly his remarkable skill and impunity in dealing with bees. Their packings and talk together brought the evening to a speedy close, and they retired for the last time to the bed which, like the discontented servant- maid, they had not ' enjoyed ' duly ; because they had always gone to sleep almost as soon as they laid down, and had not waked again till it was time to get up. CHAPTER XV. French Partridge's Nest Return to Elmdon Bob and the Doctor don't agree Off to the Spinney The Keeper again Long-eared Owl's and Grouse* Eggs Watching an Egg- stealer King Ousel and Nest Langton Tower Swifts', Starlings', Robin's, and Blue Tomtit's Nests in the Ruin- Quail's Nest. ONE of the French or red-legged partridges' nests was visited by the boys the next morning, Mr. Benson having removed all their scruples about taking eggs from it; and three were therefore added to their stock. The nest was in a clover- field, and was made of dry grass with a few feathers, and perhaps a little raised above the general surface of the ground near. One very remarkable circumstance was noted by them, and that was, that in this nest there were seven eggs belonging to the French partridge, of a rich cream colour speckled over with chocolate brown ; and, in addition to them, five others which most certainly could have been laid only by a common partridge. Exceedingly puzzled by this fact they referred the matter to Mr. Benson, who told them it was, A LITTLE ABOUT PARTRIDGES. 341 though an unusual case, yet certainly far from an unparalleled one ; he had known it occur before : as also, that two common partridges would occa- sionally lay in the same nest, till the total number of eggs amounted to thirty or more; and that even the pheasant would sometimes lay in a par- tridge's nest. The beautiful plumage of the French partridge Mr. Benson had several cases of game birds, beautifully set up, in his study was greatly admired ; the birds having acquired a new interest in the eyes of Bob and his cousin, now that, for several days, they had not only seen them on the wing and heard their unaccustomed note, but had, besides, looked in upon their family arrangements. They were rather amused at hearing ' that they sometimes perched in a tree, or on the top of a gate, though Mr. Benson seemed to think much less of that fact than they did. He thought it was a rare and always an exceptional act on the part of the bird to stop in a tree ; and he stated that he had more than once seen a wounded partridge of the common species do the same thing ; while, no later than a day or two before they came, he had seen a common partridge on the top of a wall calling away most vigorously for his mate, for five minutes at least. And last season, when shooting in a part of Yorkshire where dry stone walls were very common as fences, he saw a similar case, and 342 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. was told of another and a rather amusing one by a very intelligent farmer he got into conversation with. Two gentlemen were shooting, the man said, with their markers and game carriers in attendance in the valley below, and, meanwhile, a covey of partridges, eleven or twelve in number, were sitting on a wall two or three fields above : just as if they were as much occupied as himself in observing the proceedings of the sportsmen beneath them. He had had them under his notice for a considerable space of time, and they were still on the wall when he left his post of observation. The remainder of the morning passed over with- out noticeable event, and after very kindly and affectionate leave takings, particularly between Jack and little Minnie, the two schoolboys were driven down to the station to take their places in the train, which was to land them once again at Elmdon. The first person they saw on the plat- form there was their master, who had come down to see a friend of Mrs. Noble's safe in her place in the train. He nodded to the two lads as the carriage slowly passed him a moment before the train stepped, and a few minutes afterwards, when it was again in motion and they had just got their belongings all together for conveyance to the school, came up and shook hands with them both, saying as he did so PATS ON THE BACK. 343 " 1 am glad to be the first to tell you of your success. You would have no doubt about your remove before you left ; but I can tell you further, now, that your papers gave me great satisfaction. You, Benson, have fulfilled my expectations so far, and you, Edwards, have exceeded them. But you must not let your success make you less pains- taking and attentive. You have harder work before you now, and you must exert yourselves accordingly. I need not ask whether you intend ;" he concluded, as he noticed the earnest, glistening eyes with which the boys looked up at him as he spoke. He passed forward and left the station ; but then pausing, he waited until they overtook him, and asked them whether they had got any new eggs, and seemed to listen with quite as much interest as Bob spoke, while giving an account of their visit to Flyton Mere and Summerton Broad. "Ah!" said he, "you are lucky fellows. I should like nothing better than just such a day as that, in just those places. I never had the oppor- tunity of visiting one of those peculiar pools on a large scale which folks call Broads ; and I was so unlucky as not to be able to visit Pallinsburn, (another great breeding place of the black-headed gull, you know, in Northumberland,) the only time T was in the neighbourhood in .he spring. Well, 344 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. I must see your eggs when you have got them unpacked and arranged." The next day saw Bob and his cousin in their places in their new class, and they found that they had something to do to maintain their credit. However, it was done, though at the sacrifice of a portion of their play-hours. Dr. Noble, though not seeming to take any special notice, kept his eye upon them ; and when Thursday came round and there was. no application from Benson and Edwards for the usual permission for the afternoon, he called the former to him and inquired what he was going to be about. " Make sure of the Cicero, sir, and work forward with our verses a little." " Both very good things, Benson ; and things which must be done. And besides, the better they are done, the better I like it. Still, I think you would be able to do both to-night, at the usual time allotted for such preparation." " Oh ! sir, but to make sure," said Bob, almost deprecatingly. "Well, and I think you might 'make sure* too," returned the doctor, with a smile. " Have you had your fishing-rods out since you came back?" " No, sir." " Have you played cricket ?" DR. NOBLE'S PRESCRIPTION. 345 " Yes, sir, once." " For how long?" Half-an-hour, sir." te Have you been a mile from the school, or used Miss Graham's colour-box?" "No, sir." " Very well, then ; go and put your books up, both of you. Put your bread and cheese in your pocket, or whatever else you do when bent on a good long ramble, and be off to Fox Spinney, 01 to Turley Moor, or to the Crags, or to the Castle, and don't show your faces within the school-gates again before five o'clock. Do you hear ?" " Yes, sir," spoken rather less cheerily than was Master Bob's wont. " And mind, if your Cicero is not ' made ' quite so e sure of/ as you call it, and your verses not quite the best of the twenty copies I shall have given in in the morning, I have still no sort of doubt that both will satisfy me. You are working too hard, and are too anxious, and both unneces- sarily. I am convinced that you will gain several places before Midsummer. Besides, if you are as you call it ' in a fix ' with anything in your work to-night, come to me, and I'll help you out : you know you have that privilege in your pre- sent class, and don't be reluctant to use it. There, be off with you." 346 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. The Doctor's judicious kindness had already done for the boy just what he needed. His mastei " had confidence in him : why shouldn't he take courage for himself, and feel that, after all, he was equal to what was required of him ? Why, hadn't he had half-an-hour to spare last night, after his Thucydides was prepared, and spent it in working some extra algebra ? The Doctor was right, as he always was. And shouldn't he like a rush out, and up to Fox Spinney, or somewhere there ?" Jack, who had already got his Cicero open when Bob came bouncing into the den, could not help an exclamation as he chucked down his books, and shied the open Cicero atop of them. "Why, Bob, what's the row? I'd just got things ready." " Can't help it, old fellow. I've got the Doctor's orders to cut off somewhere this afternoon, and be as jolly as bricks. And I mean to do it. There, get your cap and hand me the egg-box, and let's mizzle in double-quick stick." Jack was slow to take it all in, and therefore slow in motion. But Bob presently made him un- derstand the Doctor's desire and the reasons for it; and he was then as full of glee as his cousin at the prospect of no end of a jolly ramble. Very few minutes elapsed before they turned over the bridge into Watery Lane, and thence SALUTATIONS. 347 into Turley Lane, on their way to the Spinney. As luck would have it, they had scarcely turned out of the lane into the footpath leading to the wood, when they saw Banks just making for the same point with themselves, and not very far in advance of them. Though already panting with their joyous run, they started afresh, and, as he entered the wood, they were only some half score paces behind him. " Now, Robert, how are you to-day ?" was Bob's salutation a few moments later. " Never better, thank you, Master Robert. Well, I am pleased to see you. I was beginning to think it long of your coming, and was planning to get you up here ; for I can tell you of a nest or two, I expect." " Capital hearing, Robert. But first I've got to tell you that my^uncle was very glad to hear of you ; I took care to give him the letter, you may depend : and he expects you'll go over and see him before the season comes in. Now for the nests. What are they, Robert, and where?" " Well, Master Robert, I'll tell you where they are, and I shall leave it for you to say what they are when you've seen 'em. Hope you've enjoyed your holidays, Master Edwards ?" " Indeed we have, Mr. Banks : and I don't wonder you like Mr. Benson so much. He was so 348 TLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. kind, and thought of everything he could to give us pleasure. And we had two or three days such fun, fishing and nesting both." And the keeper soon had an epitome of their ex- peditions to Croxteth and Flyton Meres, and to Sum- merton Broad, with occasional enlargements on this or that particular exploit ; Bob's pike, and the big one in the Broad, coming in, of course, for especial mention. " Now, Master Robert," said Banks, stopping at the foot of an old and decayed tree-stump about a quarter of an hour after entering the wood, " if you get up on to that bough you'll find this old stump, though pretty hollow and rotten, is strong enough still to help you to get up into the big oak tree above it ; and, if you look into that thribble fork in the big limb to the right, you'll see something you'll say is a nest." % " Well, I can see a bit of it from here, Banks. And I'll soon know how much more there is of it." Handing over the egg-box to his cousin as he spoke, Bob mounted on to the stub, leaped upwards from it so as to catch hold of a thick, overhanging bough of the oak ; partly drew himself up by the muscular action of his arms, partly swung his legs up till they crossed on the bough above ; hung thus for a second, with his back downwards, and then, by a quick, energetic, muscular effort, placed A MYSTERIOUS NEST. 349 himself on the topside of the bough, and rose to his feet holding by other branches higher up in the tree. Then casting a glance into the fork of the tree designated by Banks, he exclaimed, " Why, it's a squirrel's nest, Robert. Are there young ones in it ?" "Well, sir, I think not. Leastwise, not young squirrels, I should say," was the rather enigmatical answer. But Bob inquired no further. Having decided how the rather tough piece of climbing was to be done, he set to work, and, in a very brief space, was able not only to feel the contents of the nest but to inspect them. The result of the inspection was announced in the following apostrophe, " Well, but you are a queer little chap, anyhow ! Hallo ! snap your little bill at me, will you ?" Jack's curiosity was excited to the utmost; but Banks was mysterious, and Bob was inclined to tantalize him. So he caught up a bit of a dead bough, as thick as his wrist, and shied it at the climber with so good an aim and intention, that it fetched him a smart crack on his shoulder and brought him to terms at once. " 'Vast heaving, Jack. Don't shy again, for fear of the eggs. There's a young 'un the queerest shaver you ever saw and three eggs. I don't know what they are, except that they are owls' ot 350 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. some sort. They ain't big enough for the brown owl, Banks ?" " No, sir. I think they ain't the wood owl's. But maybe, I can show you one o' the old ones, not far off. You'd best take all these for fear one is too hard sat to blow." Bob did so, and descended, and they blew two of the eggs pretty easily ; only the underneath hole had to be made much bigger than usual to allow the blowing to be done. About twenty yards further there was another oak-tree standing on one side of a small open space, but on the other side backed by a very dense thicket. The whole trunk was enveloped in luxu- riant ivy, which was particularly thick about eight feet from the ground. Rattling in among this with his stick, the keeper soon induced an owl to fly out; it might almost have been said to tumble out, so confounded did it seem to be by the dis- turbance, and scarce able to guide itself, or even fly at all steadily. Bob saw it was not a tawny-owl directly it flew, both from its colour and size ; and he guessed it was an eared-owl ; the short-eared, he thought. Banks said, "Nay, I think not. I had a fair sight of it the day before yesterday ; &nd I ha' n't a doubt it's a long-eared one." The inquiry made when Jack next spoke, was, OFF FOR A GOOD LONG WALK. 351 " Mr. Banks, could we find a real squirrel's nest, do you think ?" " Oh ! yes/' he replied ; " there are mostly plenty of them in the wood. But the old doe doesn't kindle till your holiday time, or not much before ; and so you are not very likely to fall in with 'em, I doubt. But Jem could easily get some young ones and keep them for you till next half." " O ! thank you, Mr. Banks. I didn't mean that. I should hardly like to keep them in a cage. They are so active and lively, it must be a sad life to 'em, shut up in a small box or turning a cage ; like they were on a treadmill or a thrashing machine such as I once saw, where the horses were tied into narrow stalls, and, as they stepped, a sort of wheel was driven round by their feet." They were walking on again briskly now, and Banks made the inquiry, " Are you pretty well off for time, young gentle- men?" " Yes, we've got till five. But why ?" " Well, if you don't mind a goo dish stretch I think you've never been as far as Langton Tower, and I can show you a nest or two going, and another as we come back. And I have to go there before night ; and I'd go now." " Oh ! thank you, Banks, we should like it of 352 PLAY-IIOUKS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. all things. Fm twice as alive as I was an hour ago already; and I should like to see Langton Tower/' " And so should I," chimed in Jack. So, on reaching a cross glade in the wood, they struck off more to the north, and presently emerged a little beyond the extremity of the marsh, and began to ascend rapidly towards the moor. Reach- ing the heights, Banks asked Jack if he "knew where he was." Looking round, rather doubtfully at first, his countenance presently lighted up with the pleasure of recognition, and he exclaimed, " I should think I do ! Why, out there, just a- head of us, is that great tumulus we opened, and there are the others ! But is this the nearest way to Langton?" " No, sir, not quite ; but I wanted to come this way. Keep down this side, will you be so good. I don't want to be seen from Turley-wards." "Why, what's up now, Banks?" asked Bob, hearing this, and having already noticed that the keeper edged back from the brow, which com- manded the valley beneath, and, at the same time, made any one standing on, or walking along it, very conspicuous for a long distance in the valley. " Well, sir, you'll see presently/' answered the gamekeeper, looking sharply round, as if for known marks. " Aye, here it is," he resumed. " Look * WHO'S THAT?' 353 here, young gentlemen, but be careful not to tread the ling down over much/' Stepping as carefully as they could, they looked into a small space between some tufts of tallish ling, and saw there a collection of seven eggs, of a chestnut-tinged white ground, blotched all over with rich dark -brown ; grouse-eggs, in short. Passing on about two hundred yards further, the keeper showed them another nest with five eggs in ; and, in a direction at right angles to the line between these two nests, and not fifty yards from the last, another with four. These last varied in colour a good deal from the others; being of a reddish chestnut throughout, only blotched and specked with dark umber, as they were. " It wouldn't be very safe to take those eggs, Master Robert/' said Banks. " Oh ! On account of their being f game-eggs/ I suppose," replied the boy. " No, sir ; I don't mean that." "Why not, then?" asked both boys. "Tell them, Jem," was the keeper's response. " 'Cos I should walk into them as did, an' they'd stand a stammen good chance o' getting locked up for a month or two," was spoken in a voice that had not joined in the colloquy hitherto, and the origin of which was by no means clear to the two young gentlemen, who were looking about them, A A 354< PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. in any direction but the right, with their mouths decidedly open. " I say, Mr. James Watt, is that you or your ghost ?" broke out Bob at last. " Me, sir, and not my ghost ; though a little touch o' sperrits wouldn't be a bad thing to a chap as has been laying here sin' daybreak." Still Jem wasn't to be seen, albeit feeling as he said and speaking so very much like one still in the body ; and Banks had to point out his lair before the lads could quite make him out. He was snugly laid among some long ling, with a look- out arranged, through which he could command all three of the nests they had visited ; but still so well concealed that any one ignorant of his where- abouts might have walked past within a few feet, and never have seen him. " Well, have you seen anything astir ?" inquired Banks. " Why, I can't say as how I haven't. I see the chap you know on, a-coming end-on for me a'most about three hours sin', and he looked into this nest and then into yon, but he never touched 'em. Then he went over yonder a good bit to the right o' the ' Longstone.' He'll maybe be coming back this way. I shall lay on till it's too dusk to see, any- how. And I think you'd best be moving on, or he'd likely suspect summat if he seed you here." SUSPICIONS. 355 " Well, Jem, you're about right, and we'll move. You'd beat Pepper at watching, and I can't say no better of you than that." And so saying, the keeper and his companions resumed their walk, the former explaining as they went, that he had for some time past had reason to believe that a good many grouse eggs were stolen from the nests on that part of the moor ; and that, three mornings since, Jem, being out after his traps very early, had observed some footsteps on the short, fine grass bordering a little-used track they were betrayed by the dew and the deviation of those steps from the track had led him to seek the reason : when, partly by the same means and partly by accident, he had been conducted to two out of the three nests just pointed out. Putting two and two together, he had thought all might not be quite right ; and, loitering about there a little, he had seen a man, who was abominably slandered if he were not a poacher, and who certainly could not very well have business on the moor at that time of day, crossing the same in a direction opposite to that indicated by the footsteps he had noticed so shortly before. He spoke to him as he passed, and then lost no time in communicating with his superior, Banks himself. Yesterday, it was known that the suspected poacher would be occupied in another direction ; and so it was arranged that Watt should 356 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. come and watch these nests to-day. And he (Banks) thought, from what he said, that very likely ' Fiddler Baker' would be in trouble before night. " But what does he want grouse eggs for ?" asked Bob. " They can't be hatched under hens, and brought up like young pheasants or partridges, can they?" " Well, I think they couldn't, Master Robert. I should say they would not be able to live at all except on the moor. So it isn't to put under hens that he wants 'em. I should say he's got a sale for them somewhere; most likely in London. When Sir Cuthbert gave us all a treat to London, the year of the Great Exhibition, Watt and me went into Hungerford Market one. morning least- wise, Hungerford I think it was. And there was a precious sight o' birds and birds' eggs to be sure. Four or five o' those great horned owls eagle owls and a whole kit, as folks say, of quails, with net- tops to their cages lest they should knock their heads to bits in their way of jumping up if a bit scared. And hundreds o' what they called ' plover- eggs,' which were no more plover eggs than I was, main part of 'em " " Pewit-gulls, that is blackheaded gulls, such as we saw at Flyton, I dare say," interrupted Bob. " Aye, sir, I dessay : and golden plovers' too, RING-OUSEL AND NEST. 357 And besides them, there was a precious lot of eggs to sell as ' curiosities/ I saw forty snipe's eggs, if I saw one ; and pheasants' and partridges' and French ditto's, and grouse, aye and quails' and black game too. And I should say this here chap, Fiddler, as folks call him, sells the eggs he gets to some such spot." They were now in sight of Langton Tower, and beginning to descend the slope of the moor edge, though rather obliquely. In doing so they had to cross two or three deep gullies or furrows, which geemed to serve the double purpose of cart tracks in dry weather, and channels for small torrents in very wet weather. Springing down from the hither bank into the mid-track, and thence, by another spring, reaching to more than half way up the other bank, Jack all but crushed with his foot a dark coloured bird : so near killing it was he, that he actually trod out several of the quill feathers from one wing. It flew away, however, though rather lamely, dismally frightened, and screaming out its chattering cry very vociferously. It was a ring-ousel. Alarmed by the leap into the gully, it was, as Bob expressed it, 'cutting its lucky pretty quick/ but not quick enough to get quite out of the way of Jack's foot, planted as it was so quickly, with the impetus of his active springs. The nest was an untidy structure. 358 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. designed and executed on the blackbird principle : a wall of clay, covered outside with ling-tops and bents and moss, and lined inside with the same, only finer. It contained four eggs, also of the blackbird type, but blotched rather than spotted, and the blotches being such in colour as to give more of a general reddish hue to the egg than those of the blackbird wear, unless it be in a very exceptional case. These eggs, at least two of them, were appropriated with very great satis- faction, as the ring-ousel did not breed in any great abundance in that neighbourhood, and finding its nest was not an every day occurrence. They now proceeded rapidly in the direction of Langton Tower. The ruin so called was the remains of what had once been a quadrangular castle, with a square tower at each corner, built so to speak crosswise of the angle. Only one of these towers remained in tolerable integrity, and that of no very great height, but sufficiently perfect to give a name (as it was thought) to the whole ruin. The outer wall, facing the south and terminating at its eastern end in this tower, was nearly entire ; and, on entering what had formerly been the inner court of the edifice, it was seen that many apartments of the south side were still traceable by their remaining walls, and two or three of them almost perfect. One of these, of uo LANGTON TOWER. 859 great size and of irregular form, owing to the exigencies of the diagonal position of the corner tower, had, it would appear, never had so much as a gleam of daylight admitted into it (except through a doorway which opened into, at best, a dark passage) until old Time had thought fit to insert a window with his own sure hand. There was a means of ascending to the upper part of the tower by getting on to one of the ruinous interior walls ; thence, on to the vaulting of one of the lower apartments, and thence again to the side wall, in the interstices of which the wild wallflower was growing luxuriantly, besides two or three briars and an intrusive seedling ash; which last Bob felt strongly tempted to destroy then and there, before its roots had succeeded in working the mischief they so speedily would effect if suffered to remain there. From the side wall to the summit of the tower there was no difficulty in clambering. In fact, the courses of masonry, ragged at their ends, presented, for some few feet of the ascent, a species of rude staircase ; and once at the top, Banks knew that the boys had only to seek in order to find one nest or more of the swift. The search was soon instituted, and in cavities entered from one side, under some of the flags which had originally formed a good part of the roofing of the tower, and some of which still remained where they had been 360 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. first laid, two nests were quickly found. They were very slight and ill-compacted; a few straws and a few feathers, which just sufficed to keep the eggs from resting on the bare stone or mortar. In one nest there were two eggs, in the other three; all of pure white, and almost as big as a small thrush's egg. That there were starlings' nests about and in tolerable plenty, there could be no doubt. The scolding notes uttered by the birds as they left the masonry in different parts, and the chatterings and whistlings and bill-snappings, kept up by them so pertinaciously on some tall old trees growing a few yards from the old buildings, proved that abun- dantly. The birds -nesting instinct was too strong upon both the boys not to make them very anxious to have their hands in some of the tempting-look- ing holes they saw so many of about in the old walls, and fortunately a ladder was easily found ; for some parts of the old building had been pitilessly converted into make-shift farm premises, and divers articles of farm-gear met the eye all round : to say nothing of a hen-house in one of the old rooms. The ladder, with Banks's help, was soon reared, and then this hole, and then that, and then a third, was investigated ; eggs of the starling being found in most of those which were such in their dimensions and direction as to admit of the ROBIN'S NEST. 361 entrance of a boy's hand and arm. Some of them, however, turned at right angles to the original course of the hole, and if they had had phoenix' eggs in them they would have been safe. One hole just under the ladder was almost too narrow to admit Bob's hand : still he could see the nest it contained, and ascertain what was in that nest he felt that he must. Just within the hole, and short of the nest, he felt an egg. Withdrawing his hand and applying his eye he vvas surprised to see it was a robin's egg. Squeezing his hand as much together as he could, he succeeded at last in forcing it so far in that his fingers readied the interior of the nest, and he felt more eggs. He could not tell how many more, nor their size, so constrained was his hand by the dimensions and shape of the hole. After sundry efforts, he succeeded in bringing out an egg between the sides and ends of his third and fourth fingers ; and it too proved to be a robin's. This was a new position for a robin's nest to Master Bob, and he hailed the discovery accord- ingly; and, though wondering a little how the stray egg managed to get into the place he found it in, he resolved to try, and succeeded after scrubbing the skin sadly up on his wrists and knuckles in depositing both it and the one he had taken out, once more in their proper recep- tacle. While shifting the ladder, he had noticed, 362 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. as also had Jack, a slit (rather than a hole) between the end of one of the loop-hole jambs and the adjoining stone- work. As he climbed again he put his open hand sideways into the hole, saying as he did so, in a laughing way " Well, if there were a score of rare eggs there they would be safe ;" for he could not so much as get his knuckles fairly to pass in. A sharp hiss and two or three puffs, such as a small kitten makes in its playful imitation of anger, were the salutation that the intrusive fingers met with. Bob heard it plainly, and swinging himself nearer the wall, holding on to the ladder with one leg and one hand, applied his eye to the slit. The suddenness of the sharp ( phit, phit, puff, puff, puff/ that followed the moment he did so, startled him quite as much as the f snake-bird' had done for poor Jack the spring before ; and he drew his head back very quickly, losing his leg-hold as he did so, and hanging by only his hand. How- ever, that mattered little enough to him with his firm muscles and cattish grip, and he soon recovered himself from his suspensory position, and challenged another spit and puff, laughing heartily as it re- sponded to the challenge. Then descending, he altered the position of the ladder a little, and sent Jack up to pay his respects also. All his civilities were responded to as Bob's had been, and the BLUE TOMTIT'S NEST. 863 little owner of the nest in the cranny would neither leave it nor admit of any friendly relations. Jack, keeping his eye at the hole for a space, until it he- came accustomed to the obscurity within, was soon able to make out the form and some of the colours of the bird; and the blue of the head, and the yellow, and white, and black of the throat and breast and cheeks, helped him to recognise the familiar blue titmouse immediately. They had no assured specimens of this bird's eggs, but no means short of the destruction of the nest which neither of them would consent to think of presented them- selves for obtaining any from their present find. And so they left it undisturbed, laughing more than once at the little virago's quaint attempts at intimidation, and resolute refusal to be frightened away from her charge by any of their attentions or efforts. Turning away from the ruins they started at a rapid pace on their return; but Bob observed almost immediately (as he thought) that their guide was not taking them the direct road. "Where now, Banks?" he therefore inquired, with some quickness. " Well, sir, it's a bit out o* the way, to be sure ; but none so very far. And I think you'll say I was right to bring you, though you should have to run all the way back. This way, young gentle- 364 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. men," he continued, as he swung himself up a bank and passed between the two trunks of an ash- tree, both growing from the same root; and which, to those whose business it was to know all such means of transit as this, gave access to a pasture field without breaking a fence, or going round about to the gate. Through this pasture they proceeded nearly diagonally to a small grove called the ' The Holt/ or ' Langton Holt/ Seeing Banks direct his steps to this, the lads began to think what nests could there possibly be, of wood-building birds, that he was taking them to see. Could it be a kite's, or a hen-harrier's, or some rare owl's ? But Banks was very mysterious, and would only tell them " they would be sure to see soon, if they waited." "I wonder what difference it would make, Banks/' said Bob, " if we didn't wait, or wouldn't. Wouldn't I make you wait for points, if I was old Sancho?" " Maybe you would, sir, if you wasn't as keen as ever I could be, and I dare say keener ; and if," he added, quietly, producing the termination of a very persuasive-looking whip from his pocket, "I didn't carry such a plaything as this, for such dogs as like to play better than work." Bob only shrugged his shoulders, and said he knew " which would be the ' brute ' in that case JACK GROWS FACETIOUS. 365 the four-legged critter, or the two-legged ditter ;" and walked on and through the Holt, saying to Jack as they left it, and no nest pointed out in it, " I'll tell you what, Jack, you shall have all the credit o' this nest. I give it all up to you and Banks." " Why, Bob ?" said Jack, innocently. " 'Cos it's a mare's nest, my boy, and you shall have the finding of it." Jack's kick of acknowledgment, though well- imagined and well-intended, was not bestowed as it was meant to be. Bob was too nimble, and laugh- ingly exclaimed, as it missed him, " Sold again, old fellow, and no returns. Better give up the business." And now Banks went over a fence at the corner of a field of young wheat, and skirting the corn for about thirty yards, struck into a water furrow. After following the keeper nearly half way through a large field without stopping, Jack called out to Bob, who was walking just in front of him, " I say, Bob, if what Banks is taking us to is what you say it is, you ought to take the eggs to old Phiggs' shop." " Ought I, old fellow ? And what's the reason why?" " Oh ! not because he sells eggs, Bob ; but be- cause he's mayor this year." 366 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS " Oh ! and the real ' mare's nest ' isn't far off his shop I see, Jack. Not so bad for a beginner. Try again for an hour a day, Jack, and in a year's time what jokes you'll be able to crack ! Hollo ! Here's Banks pulling up at last !" Banks had indeed stopped, and parting the grow- ing corn, pointed out an object to Bob, which seemed to produce a very strange effect upon his emotions and dispositions ; for, singing out ' Hip, Hip, Hurray/ at the very top of his voice, he dealt Jack a blow on the breast which nearly floored him from its suddenness, and saying to Banks, " An' Fd serve you the same if you wasn't so awful tall and strong/' he went down upon his knees over a nest, taking up first one egg, and then another, in admiration and delight. Jack seemed to resent the blow no more than Banks did the expression of inclination, and, with quite as much wondering curiosity as admiration, cried, as he knelt close by Bob's side, " What ever are they, Bob ?" " Why, mare's eggs, Master Edwards," said Banks, before Bob could reply ; enjoying the boys' evident delight. " He knew, Master Robert did, before ever he saw 'em, you know." " Aye, Banks, laugh on. I'll forgive you. Why, Jack, they're quails' eggs, and there's eleven of 'em. The brown-spotted beauties ! in that QUAIL'S EGGS. 367 scratched-out pan of a nest, with six straws, and five bents to line it ! And don't you remember, Dr. Noble told us he wanted some, if ever we did come across any, which he didn't think we should. But," said he, after a moment's hesita- tion, " may we take them, Banks ?" " Yes, sir, that you may. Sir Cuthbert knows of them, and told me I was to be sure and let you know; and, if I hadn't seen you to-day, I should have let you know agen Monday ; which he said would be a holiday." " Well, Sir Cuthbert's an out-and-outer, he is. We must have four, then, Jack ; and then away as hard as we can pelt. How long will it take us, Banks ?" " An hour and a quarter, sir, and good work, too. I'll put you in the road, and then I'll go and hang about below the brow-edge where Jem's laid." And so it was done. And the boys had the pleasure of meeting their master at the school-gate as the clock struck five, and receiving his thanks for the quails' eggs, and feeling how right he was when he finished what he had to say to them with, " And your walk has done you good, I can see." It had done them good, as they found when they went to work, and again next morning in class. CHAPTER XVL Play -hours' Recreations Dunchester Cricket Matches Break- ing up Long Ned Ross Coracle Building Bob tries how a Turtle feels when turned over on to its back Early morning start The River no hindrance to a straight Course Scenery Launching the Coracle Wye Fly-rod and Line The Salmon Chase. IT wanted now less than a month to the Midsummer holidays. Founder's-day was over, with its exa- mination, which had passed over very satisfactorily to every one in whom we have any interest, and a long and successful afternoon's fly-fishing had been enjoyed after it was over. The weeks and days passed very rapidly to the two boys, for they were always occupied about something. When there was work to do that required doing in earnest they did it in earnest; in fact, they ( sapped awfully/ as one of the fifth form above whom they both soon permanently took their places said in accounting for the fact. But with all their sapping, it was remarkable what a lot of other things they did. Sob's drawings of insects were made, to the number NO LACK OP PURSUITS. 369 of eighteen or twenty, and their schoolboy obser- vations of their habits were neatly written in on the opposite page ; the drawings themselves having been finished under Miss Graham's eye, when their visit to Wrilton Park had been made. While Bob was filling up his spare hours and wet days with his colours and brushes, Jack had been engaged in making neat plans of this or that camp, or ring, or embankment, which he had had an opportunity of visiting and measuring. Then again fly-making had filled up many a half-hour ; and what with Sir Cuthbert's kindness in giving them patterns, and Banks' practical hints, both of them were becoming tolerably proficient in the art, and Bob's flies were at least as good as four-fifths of the flies one is able to buy : for at least they were true in point of colour ; and that, the cousins had found out, was a great point indeed. A great many caterpillars, too, had been brought, home, and a row of a couple of dozen paper-boxes on the flue-back fully explained the haste with which the morning run on the London road was entered upon, as soon as breakfast was over, and returned from as soon as leaves or blades had been culled from some ten or fifteen different trees arid shrubs and plants. For the quarter of an hour after their return was spent in opening box after box, taking out the refuse and withered leaves of B u 370 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF -HOLIDAYS. yesterday, cleaning all thoroughly well, and then replenishing them with the freshly gathered leaves that lay at hand. The caterpillar of the puss-moth had been met with, and many a laugh had they had over its quaint attitudes, and defensive postures, and seemingly offensive whisks or tails. Those also of the great tiger-moth, and one of the cream-spot tiger-moth, had been obtained. Three of the red- underwing, two of the poplar hawk-moth, (which they found on a willow-bush,) and a splendid spe- cimen of that of the privet hawk-moth, (which Dr. Noble brought them one morning out of his garden,) together with several of the larger and less tortoise- shell butterflies, the peacock, the red admiral, and two or three of the fritillaries, had also been added to their stock. Two or three splendid pea- cocks, and some of the tortoiseshells had already ' hatched' to increase their interest, and add to their knowledge in the ways of nature and their delight in observing them. The cricket match with the Dunchester Club, the Eleven unmarried, and Elm- don school to name any former scholar they chose who might be within reach to play on their side, had come off, and a very close match it had been : three men and eight boys fighting the eleven full-grown men gallantly to the last, and only losing by eight notches in the end. Bob was in his old place neither of the three old Elmdonites present NED'S PROPOSED EXCURSION. 371 having been accustomed to that part of the fielding and thoroughly well had he acquitted himself in it ; while his score was by no means the least one of the day. Notwithstanding, however, the pleasant way in which their time was passing, they were looking forward to the holidays with great eagerness. Edward Benson had long had an inclination for a week's fishing in the Wye, and one or two of the smaller streams running into it; particularly the Lug for its grayling, and the Monow for its fine trout : and, in Bob's last letter from home, he had been told that his brother had made arrangements to go about the very time school broke up, and was rather more than willing that he (Bob) and his cousin Jack should accompany him, if they were so disposed. Besides this, Mr. Spencer's family party were intending to join Mr. Benson's Bob's father's, that is in paying a visit to Scarborough during the last fortnight of the holidays, and Bob had contrived to obtain the consent of everybody concerned to Jack's partici- pation in the arrangement. Both boys more than half hoped that Mr. Spencer would depend upon the "True Blue' only for conveyance to Scar- borough, and that thus the pleasures of a trip by sea would be added to all the other delights they were looking forward to. 372 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. We shall see how it all turned out. The return match at Dunch ester came on at the beginning of the last week before that in which the holidays commenced; and Jack, in common with all the fifth form who liked to accompany the eleven, got leave to go to witness it. As the train drew up at the station, who should be there wait- ing for the Elmdon players but Mr. Spencer and Annie and Tay ? Bob could hardly help hugging them all round as he came tumbling out of the carriage, in his hot haste, into the very midst of them : and I am not sure, to this day, that he didn't hug Tay behind the waiting-room door, when she told him to 'look at the ribbons she wore, and be sure he did his best to maintain the honour of his colours/ The Spencers and the two lads all walked up to the cricket-field together, and old Pettit, too, was one of the party. For noticing him as he stood among the Elmdon lads, towering high above them all, Mr. Spencer had asked Bob who he was; and on learning that it was the Pettit he had heard so much of, had taken Bob with him to make him known to the young man. Pettit, frank-hearted gentleman's son as he was, at once perceived the kindness and courtesy which had prompted the step, and dismissing Mr. Spencer's notice of his kindness to his nephew with a blunt " Why, the lad's a trump, and wanted CRICKET MATCH AT DUNCHESTER. 373 but little from me," responded to an invitation to Hareborough by an acceptance quite as hearty as the invitation itself. And so they walked on to the cricket-ground ; and a fine old ground it was, at the back of the castle, and with old mouldering walls, and noble walnut-trees towering above them, on two sides ; and a grand view over the rich valley of the Dun in the other direction. The Elmdon side were put in first by their opponents, who won the toss, and Pettit took his place at once at the wicket faced by Gregory. He had never been in better play, and the balls seemed pitched on purpose for him to do as he liked with them. He made a magnificent score. And Bob whether it was from the inspi- ration afforded by his leader's success, or from his determination to win a smile from the wearer of the blue and white ribbons Bob had never been known to play so well before. He had grown greatly in the past year, and his strength had kept pace with his growth ; and he and Pettit made no less than fifty-one runs while both in together. The issue of the first innings was that Elmdon was twenty-seven ahead ; and when, in the second, Bob being set on to bowl so greatly had he pro- fited under Pettit's careful training, and by dint of his own perseverance and singular dexterity, and aptitude for acquiring skill in all active exercises 374 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. two wickets fell in the course of his first over, the final result seemed almost certain. Nevertheless, the Bachelors played well and resolutely; but it seemed the odds were against them. Bob and Pettit both bowled so splendidly, it was very hard for any but the very best players to make much of them ; and when what does not often happen Pettit made a good score in his second innings also, and Donaldson one almost equally good, it chanced that, on Bob being put in and scoring a two, a one, and a three, to Donaldson's one off the fourth ball, the requisite number was obtained, and Elmdon won with six wickets to go down. Pettit was standing with Mr. Spencer, who had come up again from the town, with his daughters, to see the close of the game, when Bob came up, bat in hand, as he left the wicket. With a thump on the shoulders which would have knocked the wind out of a street-nurtured weed of a mere town boy, the tall fellow said to him, "Well done, old fellow. Old Elmdon's no call to be ashamed of you, any how." Bob laughed, and nodding to his captain, passed on to Tay, saying in a low tone "May I have it, please, Tay?" " Yes, Robert. And I wish I was a boy to call yon ' a brick' right out." No other words passed, but Mrs. Spencer AN OVATION. 375 observed, on her daughter's return in the evening, that she had " lost one of the pretty blue and white bows from her bonnet ;" and Jack, when they got back to Elmdon and went into their den, saw the end of a blue and white ribbon carefully passed into Bob's snuggest repository of choicest treasures. Before they had left Dunchester, however, it seemed to be generally understood that the ' Blue' was to go to Scarborough, and a little badinage about sea legs, and contemplative habits in- dulged over the leeward gunwale, passed between Jack and the young ladies ; in which, however, the former was not the aggressive party. But the train was now nearly due, and the lads had to hasten to the station. On their arrival at Elmdon, whither the news of the victory had pre- ceded them, nearly a hundred of their school- fellows were seen assembled on the platform, and a cheer given with the whole force of their lungs- doubled, as it seemed to be, by their enthusiasm, and really was, by the glass roof of the station was the welcome that greeted the entrance of the train. Again and again it was taken up, and the crown- ing one of all was given when the Doctor and Mrs. Noble walked into the station, and the master, as evidently participating in the elation of school achievement as any one there, shook hands with Pettit, Donaldson and Benson by general consent 376 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. the three heroes of the day and heartily con- gratulated them on the triumph they had gained. A moment's silence, and then twenty boyish voices were heard exclaiming, " The Doctor, the Doctor! one for the Doctor !" And wasn't it a cheer in earnest ? Poor Mrs. Noble wasn't the only one on the platform who put her hands to her head, as the sustained, ear-penetrating treble of boys'-voices (thoroughly drowning the deeper notes of the half score or so of big fellows who had attained the gruffer tones of approaching manhood) rose and rolled and rattled, once and again, through the station. And then they marched out, the conquering eleven at the head of an irregular, impromptu procession. As soon as they emerged from the station buildings another welcome awaited them : the Elmdon band had somehow heard of the success of the school eleven, and had gathered nobody at first knew how or almost why and had just been able to reach the station-yard as the head-master entered the building. It was their turn now ; and heading the procession, they marched before it, playing their best, to the school gates. They were all working men, as it was well known in the school : and the collection made for them there on their anni- versary, when they went round the parish playing at each house of any note, and forming a fund, out of which they paid for their dinner that day and AN ORATION. 377 their new music for most of the year, was by no means the least in its amount of the various Elmdon offerings. Pettit, therefore, during the walk up, had put his hand into his own pocket, and was by no means the only one that did so, so that when the musicians stood on one side on reaching the school gates, to let the boys pass in, he had nearly ten shillings ready to give them. He turned therefore to the leader a young man whose left arm was still in a sling, and who had managed to play his cornet with his right hand only, and who, he knew, was a journeyman shoemaker by trade and said, "Thank you, Marker, for myself and the rest of us. We didn't look for this. We are none of us rich at this time of year. So if you'll take this, and accept the will for the deed, why, we shall all be well pleased ; and I hope your arm is getting all right again." But Harker did not seem at all ready to take it He pushed Pettil/s hand back with the back of his own, still holding his instrument " No, no, Mr. Pettit," he managed to say at last, " we none of us wants that of you. And more nor that, we weant take it. You brought me five half-crowns that you ris' in the school when I was hurt; and old Nelly Day guv me two more from two other young gents that wouldn't tell 378 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. their names. Bat I got her to mark 'em for me, Sunday was a week, and there stands one on 'em with his flannens still on ; and if either me or my mates takes a ha'penny o* you to-night why, dash my buttons, that's all/' And so he shut up, while sundry nods from among the other performers, two or three adding, ' That's just it, Jem,' and ' That's our minds, young gentlemen all/ approved and confirmed the shoe- maker's oration. The ' young gent with his flannens still on' was no other than Boh, who with Jack had clubbed five shillings out of the money saved for the colour-box, to help the young man who had often given them a bit of cobblers' -wax and had shown them other little pieces of kindness and good-will ; and who besides was understood to be keeping his mother and a crippled sister out of his wages, as well as himself. He needed and deserved help, poor fellow ; for he had had his arm broken in a gallant attempt to save a child from being run over by a cab. He had succeeded, but at the heavy cost to himself of being incapacitated for work for several weeks. And in his gratitude for what had come from the school, he had thought of this way of saying ' thank you/ and had said it, with the most willing co-operation of his fellows in the band. One excursion more was made before the 'break- SWALLOWS' NESTS IN A SHED. 379 up/ and that on the Thursday succeeding .the cricket-match. They went to the Park to take leave of their kind friends there, and to submit Bob's copies of the May-fly in both its stages as the angler's green-drake and grey-drake, that is to Miss Graham's inspection, as well as to ask her if she would like to have three caterpillars of the purple Emperor butterfly, which they had met with the morning before, when getting some leaves of the sallow for their day's consumption. She was busy with callers when they first went, and so they turned into the Wilderness. Here, meeting the gardener, he took them into a shed where garden- implements and the like were kept, and showed them two nests built at the side of some of the rafters in the roof. They were on the principle of the martins' nests under the eaves of the same building, except that they were left quite open at top ; there being a space of several inches between the upper edges of the nest and the sloping surface of plaster beneath the slates. They were made of mud wrought and consolidated together ; affixed to the wood just as the martin's nest to the house-wall ; and with a lining of fine straw and feathers. The eggs were white, and of that shape which left no doubt that the nests were swallows' nests. Jack had no idea that swallows ever built in such a position. The gardener, who was a Scotchman told 380 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. them he had seen nests beneath a suspension-bridge over the Tweed ; and he thought that in several parts of his own country they built in sheds and such like places quite as often as in chimneys. And besides, there was in a shed at the home-farm at this moment, a nest much in such a position as those they had just looked at, only a little nearer to the roof, which was of thatch. While talking to the gardener at some short distance from the door of the garden-shed, Jack had twice noticed a small, brown-coloured bird go into the building ; staying only a very short time in it, however, and then adjourning to the top of one of the espalier posts near, which it quitted every few seconds to take a fly ; the snapping of its bill being plainly heard by the lad as it did so. Then it returned again to its post its post, in a double sense and so on. " Bob/' said he, after eight or ten minutes of silent observation, "I wish you'd tell me what bird that is. Look, there, he's off again like a dart, and now he's back again on the next post." A glance showed Bob that it was a spotted fly- catcher ; and he had just told Jack so when it was seen to fly into the garden house again; having made just five fly-catching flits since its last visit, Jack said. " Then there's a nest there," exclaimed Bob, un- BEAMBIRD'S NEST. 381 hesitatingly ; " and it's got young ones, and is feeding them with the flies it's caught." They went in again to the shed immediately. Bob seemed to know where to look, for he began a systematic observation of the upper sides of all the cross beams close to the wall. Jack looked anywhere and everywhere, and the gardener as- sisted too; and his eyes certainly looked sharp enough to detect it if it were there. Still, no nest appeared; and it was voted a case of perplexity. At last a thought struck Bob. " Go out, will you, please, Mr. Craig, and you, too, Jack, and stand where you were before ; and I'll stop here in this dark corner, and watch the bird in case he comes in again." No sooner said than done. Bob ensconced him- self so that it was not likely the unsuspecting little bird would discover him, and the other two went outside to their former standing-place and resumed their talk. As if waiting for their re-appearance, the fly- catcher almost immediately repaired to the inside of the building, Jack giving a short whistle at the instant it did so, to call Bob's attention. A few seconds and out he flew again : a signal for the two outsiders to go quickly in, Jack crying as he did so, " Well, Bob, did you see him?" " Aye, old fellow, I did. It's a funny place, I 882 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. can tell you. It's in that flower-pot on the beam over your head. Why, I must have been within a yard of it, and she never moved, for there she is I can see her tail now." " Then he wasn't feeding his young ?" said Jack. " No, I expect not ; but feeding his wife equally affectionate, and more dutiful, my boy. Hope you'll remember when you've got one of your own," laughed Bob. They had eggs of the bird in question, and so did not disturb her; and repairing to the house again, found Miss Graham disengaged, and it was nearly an hour before she let them go. The last Sunday was spent. The Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday drew their slow length along. The last theme was given in, corrected, and com- mended particularly Bob's ; the last lesson said, and the school dismissed ; and then Bob and his cousin cut off as hard as they could to the station in the hope of getting there before the train, which was to bring Long Ned down to be ready for a start all together in the morning. As they reached the station-yard, they saw the last puffs of steam as the engine shut it off; and a minute or two more, and Ned was with them. Returning together they met the Doctor, who had a hearty greeting for his former pupil, and inquired what brought him to Elmdon. On being told, he said, ROSS. 388 " Going to Ross, are you ? Why, so am I on Monday. T wonder if we shall meet. How long do you stay ?" Being told, as also something of their plans, so far as they were formed, he communicated to them, in his turn, where he would be to be found the greater part of the following week ; and his parting, " I hope we may meet," certainly met with cor- dial response in the hearts of the two boys, and scarcely less so in Ned's. The journey the following day was happily ac- complished, and it was with feelings of unmixed delight that the boys found themselves, in the course of the afternoon, looking over the glorious scene spread out before them as they stood in front of the Royal Hotel. The Wye was seen for miles of its winding course ; now on their right, as it meandered on its way from Hereford ; now on their left, as it flowed on and on towards Monmouth. Woodland scenery, too, helped to fascinate the eye; and with the dark, dim, distant background of the Welsh Hills, and the diversified face of the middle distance, the spectators thought it was long since they had looked on any view at once so new and so beautiful. Edward Benson was not long in looking up an old ally of his in former fishing expeditions on the Wye, and of whose marvellous dexterity he had 384 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. told more than one exciting tale, to most attentive listeners, during the hours of their journeying. The old fellow was found without difficulty. In- deed, he was busy making himself a new coracle ; having, but five minutes before the visit of Ned and the boys, been engaged in patching his old one, so as to make it water-tight until his new one should be ready. It was with no little curio- sity and interest the lads looked at the frail bark denominated in the country tongue ' a truckle' ; and, in seeing the one which Peter Frant had, so to speak, newly put upon the stocks, they had a great advantage in being able to observe at one glance the principle and process of its construction. Thin and light ashen hoop-stuff, arranged and curved in such a way as to make a sort of lattice-work skeleton much the shape of a magnified walnut- shell razd-ed, of four feet and a half long by three or three and a quarter broad, the edges of the lat- ticed-shell being formed of two thin ashen strips which enclosed the ends of the several ribs formed the elementary part of the structure. Just across that part of the breadth in which the centre of gravity would be found, there was then placed vertically a half inch board ; and along the top of this, another was firmly fixed in a horizontal position. This was the seat or bench. Frant was' able to complete all this part in the presence of his HOW TO DRESS A CORACLE. 385 visitors, who gave up their intended stroll by the river-side on purpose to see more of the process of coracle building. And next he showed them the canvas with which it was to be covered, and ex- plained how he would have to set about that part of the work ; how much shaping and cutting there would be ; and how the covering was secured, and then made watertight. The one he had just patched illustrated this well enough ; and there, by the smouldering fire near which he had been working, stood the earthen pipkin which contained the dressing applied to the canvas : resin and linseed- oil in certain proportions well boiled together, and applied hot, dressing over dressing : two good ones generally sufficing to render the material thoroughly waterproof. If the mixture were properly made, two or three days would be plenty to allow of the complete drying of both dressings ; and then the ' truckle ' would be fit for use. " Where do you keep them ?" asked Bob. " Keep them ? Why here, to be sure." " But when you want to use them ? Why, you'd want a wheelbarrow or a donkey-cart to take them down to the river." Frant laughed right out at this. And when he spoke again it was to say, " Why, bless your heart, young gentlemen, old as I am and I'm sixty-five come next January c c 386 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. I think nothing o' walking eight or nine mile up the country wi' this on my back, and fishing down again. Aye, before now, I've gone well nigh up to Mordiford in a morning before eight o'clock ; and oft as far as Caplor woods, far eend of 'em. Why, this old one is only thirty-six pound weight/' "Why, how ever do you carry it?" inquired Jack and Bob in a breath. " Why, you see this here strap," pointing to one which was let through the plank that served as seat, by two holes some thirty inches apart, and secured at each end beneath ; " Well, I puts that over my head till it comes across the front of my shoulders and breast, standing the truckle up, like this, to do it. And then I rises up, and claps this here paddle across the small of my back, this way ; and it keeps the end o' the truckle from chopping against my legs as I walk." The paddle was an implement of some five feet long, with a blade four or five inches wide, that monopolized one foot of the length, perfectly flat on one side, but on the other, rising to a longitu- dinal ridge in the middle, from which it got thinner and thinner to each edge ; and this blade was at the end of a shaft of nearly or quite an inch in diameter, that engrossed all the rest of the length. BOB CAPSIZED AND HELPLESS. 387 Having seen the old man take up his coracle and carry it across the yard two or three times, and then divest himself of it with the utmost readiness and ease, Bob must needs try for him- self how it felt. Accordingly, he set the coracle up on its narrower end, and then knelt as Frant had done, and inserted his head between the strap and the bench. Somehow it did not balance so nicely as when Frant was the manipulator, and Bob did not get thus far without several pauses, and swayings, and steadyings. Just as the strap was fairly below his chin, and he was beginning to rise to adjust it better, another swaying took place, which he helped by the initiatory movement of rising ; and the next moment, instead of standing upright, as he had doubtless imagined he was about to do, he was ignominiously sprawling on his back, with his rump in the coracle, his legs out, and firmly held down by the strap, which, slipping a little as he tottered over, held his two arms quite unpleasantly close to his two sides. He was on his back and pinioned, and as helpless as a capsized turtle. It was, indeed, no easy thing to get up. However, with a little help, he was set once more in a vertical position, and the old fisherman looked with an anxious eye to see if any damage had en- sued to the coracle. Finding none, he turned to Bob, with 388 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. " Young master, you'll be less keen to take to a truckle another time/' " No, no," said Bob ; " I'll master it yet, you'll see. How ever do you work this paddle ?" " Oh !" said his brother, in reply to this ques- tion, " you recollect trying to e scull ' the Blue's small boat last summer, standing in her stern, and making the blade of the oar go through a sort oi figure-of-eight motion in the water ?" " Aye," said Bob. " And what then ?" " Why, the truckle-man does much the same with his paddle. Sitting firmly on his bench, and holding the paddle over the broad end of the coracle, in a vertical direction, with the flat face from him, he works it in much the same fashion as in ' sculling ' a boat, pulling the water to him as it were in a continuous manner, first from the left, then from the right. It is done by the action of the wrists mainly. But a little showing will be worth a deal of telling. I suppose you can get me a coracle, and go with us to-morrow, Frant ?" "Aye, sir, it'll go hard with me but I do both. Will you have one of our Wye rods and lines, too?" " To be sure. Fit me up complete. I long to be at it again the old way. Have you lots of flies on hand?" " No, sir, not many, just now." A FISHERMAN'S COCK. " You've got a ' Fisherman's Cock/ I dare ven- ture to bet ?" " Yes, have I ; though I have to lock him up when he's getting into full feather ;" and the old man grinned a knowing grin. " A ' fisherman's cock' ? And ' lock him up' ? What do you mean ?" asked Bob. "Why, a fisherman's cock is one that gives us the smoky hackles " " < Smoky hackles !' " interrupted Bob. " Why, what are they ?" "Dun hackles, they are sometimes called," ex- plained Ned. " These smoky hackles are in pecu- liar estimation on the Wye. And a cock that gives them in perfection and he ought to be four or five years old for that is valued accordingly. Would you take a guinea for yours, Frant ?" " No, sir, I wouldn't. He's worth more than that to me." " But why lock him up ?" persevered Bob. " Because, otherwise, some other fisherman might get hold of him, and either strip his neck or make away with him altogether." This explanation given, it was settled that they should be ready to join Frant at a given point at a very early hour next morning, to go as straight as they could to the Hereford side of Caplor Hill, and fish back, the boys on shore, the men in their 390 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. coracles. And a hint of Ned's set both the latter to work, tying some large sized bait-hooks (with part of their shanks nipped off) to strong and clear gut. Ned himself tied one or two with two hooks, one a medium-sized Limerick hook, back to back. No time was lost from sloth in the morning, and the river-bank was soon reached. The truckle- men straightway doffed their burdens and launched them, and entering themselves, took, each of them, one of the boys besides, only bidding them take especial care to sit most steadily, or an upset would ensue. The transit was successfully accom- plished and Frant said he had little doubt from the state of the water, the sky, and the wind, that they might all have good sport. The coracles were soon mounted again, and before long, owing to another bend of the river, it had to be crossed a second time. This time it was not far from Fawley Chapel, and they took the road thence, going by Brockhampton Church, with its wonder- ful old, half-hollow yew-tree in the churchyard, and then along the Hereford road till they reached the point at which they were to begin to fish. Beautiful as they had thought the country over- night, this morning, as they passed on from point to point, and came in sight of new scenery almost every ten minutes steep hill, deep vale, WYE SCENERY. 391 luxuriant wood, flashing stretches of the river, which seemed bent on always keeping one wooded bank for itself, their delight absolutely lacked means of expression. And it was a wonderfully, romantically beautiful scene where they finally stopped before commencing the special pursuit ot the day. The* road they had come down to it, with its almost precipitous flanking descent of many score feet to the river bank, only broken by the growth of noble trees here and there ; with its ledges of rock running across it, causing the wheel of any vehicle to descend with a sudden jar some five or six inches as it passed over ; with the sheet of wood into which the hither bank ex- panded a little lower down, was such as they had never seen or imagined before. And then the river itself, broad, swift, flowing through rich meads, was so beautiful an object. However, their admiration of the scenery did not the least hinder their active preparations for their fishing. Ned's and Frant's equipment in the rod-way had been regarded by both Bob and his cousin with doubt- ful, not to say questioning, wonder ; by no manner of means with admiration. And this emotion seemed to culminate when they saw the two men produce and proceed to affix their lines. The rods were plain wood affairs, with no rich, high -var- nished, glossy brown and black about them. 392 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. relieved by natty brass ferules and manifold rings. Varnished they had been, to be sure ; but it was over the uncoloured lance-wood of which they were chiefly composed, spliced together in a rough home-made way; with a coarse bit of whalebone at one end terminating in a commonplace, awkward-looking horse-hair loop, and at the other in what might very well have done duty as the wooden handle of a large, old-fashioned old woman's umbrella, or even that of a common dust- pan; only that the latter, from its paint and var- nish, would have been too ornamental. But the line ! Luckily Bob wasn't given to indulge in fainting-fits, or Jack in hysterics. And besides, if they had been, the Wye was nicely handy to revive them by contributing a portion of its waters. Ordinary brown horsehair twisted to- gether, as large as a small quill at the end that was to be attached to the rod, and tapering down to a by no means fine line at the other end ; knotted together about every two feet or so, with knots at the upper end as big as horse beans, at the lower as big as large shot. And that was called a fly- line ! Reel there was none, rings none, of course : they must have been curtain-rings to suffer such knots to pass. And yet the line was long enough too; ten yards, Frant said. And to this was attached an additional length of three yards in the form of the gut-bottom or fly-link. EMBARKATION. 393 However, on seeing Frant flirt the line and flies, (which lay in coils at his feet,) out over the river, and then, with a sort of double action of his hand and wrist, make it wheel behind him, then forward again, once more behind, and then, for the last time, forward, and drop on the water as straight as a line, and as light as down, they began to think there might be a possibility of fishing, and even of catching fish, with such exaggeratedly homely apparatus. The next thing was to see the coracles prepared and launched, and the fishermen embark. A stone of some six or eight pounds' weight was selected by each of them, securely tied to the end of a rope, the other end of which was fastened to the carrying strap : this was to serve as killick or anchor, while they were busy fishing any particular stream. Next they got on board, a proceeding in which a tyro almost always comes to watery grief. He steps in as he would into a boat; the light structure beneath his foot of course slips away, and in he goes. Bob saw his brother and Frant launch their barks at the edge of a gravel; and then, having bows on, they set a foot in so that it pressed the bottom of the coracle on to the sloping surface beneath the shallow water : the earth still bearing their weight therefore : and then quietly and steadily taking the other foot in, and sitting down in the exact centre, a slight push was 894 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. enough to set the coracle afloat. " Sitting to fish with extra short rod and enormously long line ! Well, that is a queer notion ;" thought Bob ; "how ever could they kill a heavy fish?" The question was, though unspoken, to be answered sooner than could have been expected. The boys had seen Frant for their curiosity was too strong to suffer them to set to work them- selves immediately take a trout of nearly half a pound weight, and then a couple of small trout- like fish which he called by a name that sounded like ' scarling' or ' scurling/ when their eyes as well as his were attracted by the rise of a large fish a hundred yards lower down the stream ; though about as much short of the place at which Ned had just commenced operations. They then observed Frant hastily draw in his line, hand over hand, remove his fly-link and affix another he took from his hat, with a single large fly at its end. This done, he tied a large bung or bit of cork, which he had with him, to the handle of his rod, so as to leave it dangling loosely at the end of the string it was attached to ; just simply saying to the bystanders, in the way of explanation " That's a salmon. I must have a try for him." He then drew up his killick, and proceeded quietly on with the stream in the direction of the point at which he had seen the rise, using his HOOKING A SALMON. 395 paddle only just sufficiently to direct his coracle to the place. As he came within twenty-five yards or so, the fish rose again. In a few seconds more the stone was once more dropped, the line and rod got under command, and a beautiful throw executed, which dropped the fly within an inch of the end of a stick that had been his mark to know the exact place at which the fish had risen. A slight heave of the water as the fly dropped : the line taughtened as the old man's wrist moved, and the next instant, a dive down followed by a plunge out, and then a shoot off down stream. The moment the onward impulse was made, indeed, as soon as ever the con- viction that the fish was safe hooked, darted across his mind, the old man flung rod and all in, the cork still attached. The rod was in an instant drawn beneath the surface; but scarcely so, except for an instant, the cork, though the salmon did rush along at a furious rate. The old fisherman followed as close as he could, urging his coracle along with the stream vigorously ; and presently, on reaching another pool much such another as where he had hooked his fish he got hold of his rod, lifted it from the water, and took ' a feel of his fish/ Off he rushed, indignant, again, as soon as he felt the movement and pressure of the line and hook ; and again had the truckle-man to follow him up. Ned and the two boys were in close at- 396 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS, tendance all the while ; the former not leing able to withstand the temptation to be a witness of this remarkable fish-chase, and so leaving his own coracle for the purpose. Three several times again the fisherman took up his rod, and three times more the salmon broke away. The fourth time its strength was so much subdued that he was able to hold on, and the fish was little able to resist when, after two or three minutes, the man began to direct its course as well as that of his own boat. The latter he sculled to a gravel, and there disembarking, in a few minutes more suc- ceeded in bringing his captive, almost unresisting, and on his side, to the shore ; when a tap on his head put an end to his struggles for ever. It was a very fine nine-pound fish, and a grand beginning to the day's proceedings. CHAPTER XVII. Fishing resumed Cider Dibbing with the Natural Fly A Slockdolager of a Trout caught with a Cockchafer Ned tries the depth of the River Skylark's and Tree-pipit's Nests Woodlark's Song and Nest The Evening Rise Total Catch. NED ^and Jack retraced their steps to where the former had left his various belongings, while Bob remained with Frant to take a lesson or two in the art of launching a coracle, embarking in it without an upset, and fishing from it. The first was easily learned: the second, when his own observations had been reinforced by a hint or two from the fisherman, occasioned him no difficulty; but he could not achieve the feat of throwing the thirteen- yard line with the nine-foot rod, especially in a sitting posture ; so he gave that up and proceeded to work with his own light, natty fly-rod. He made two or three good throws towards the com- mencement of a 'stream/ at a point where the current was deflected from a rocky face, rising about three feet above the surface. A very small catch at his line made itself sensible to him at his 398 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. second throw, but so slight that he thought he had missed the fish, probably a very small one ; and he proceeded to raise his rod for another throw. To his surprise, as he gave the needful flirt back of his line, a very minute fish followed at its extre- mity, and effectually prevented his delivery of the line from being either successful or artistic. Draw- ing it in, it proved to be a middle-sized minnow which had been greedy enough to take a fly half as big as its own head, and had paid the penalty of its greediness. After this, he succeeded in catching three or four scurling, one trout of small size, three dace and a couple of chub, one a fair sized one : and then approaching a rapid he yielded to Frant's suggestion that he should make for the side instead of facing the perils of a passage over that stormy channel which must needs beset an inex- perienced sailor in such a peculiarly unstable vessel. Bob could manage to give a little impulse to the coracle by the legitimate use of the paddle ; but he found it was much easier and quicker to reverse that instrument and use it as a pole in the shallow water he was now floating on. He stood by to see Fraiit descend the rapid, admiring the ready dex- terity with which, by a touch, or if necessary, a vigorous twist or two of the paddle, he succeeded in keeping his coracle always end-on, so that in her deepest dips she did not take in a single drop of LUNCH. 399 water. He then paused till his brother and cousin came up ; and, on their joining him, found that the latter had caught a better trout than himseHJ while Ned had been on the whole rather success- ful. They all kept on with their fishing until they reached Hoarwithy ferry ; and there they saw the process of ferrying a horse and gig across the stream, admiring greatly the skill with which the ferryman, by no means a young man, managed his pole and the ponderous flat, in which the horse was standing as still as if in his own stall in the stable at home ; On they went, sometimes fishing, at other times those on board the coracles suffering their vessels to float idly along, the walkers meanwhile loitering or resting, but all three enjoying the novelty, the scenery, the day, to the greatest degree. Jack had his turn of floating too, as well as Bob, while Ned and the fisherman stretched their legs with a walk. About eleven o'clock a halt was called by general consent, Frant going off to a place at a short distance from the river-side, while the others pro- ceeded to reveal the contents of three several pack- ages, which had been put up, according to Ned's orders, in that way instead of in one larger one, for facility of transport. What they found seemed to be quite satisfactory, judging from the eagerness with which Frant's return was anticipated; and when, after some ten minutes, they saw him 400 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. approaching with a goodly stone bottle in one hand, and a couple of mugs in the other, his advent was hailed with great apparent joy. A hearty lunch was expeditiously put out of sight, and cider ad libitum was consumed by Ned and old Frant. Bob managed a mug of it too; but Jack was beat, and went to a clear stream running into the river not far from their resting- place. Bob, after going there too, thought he would go back and try another pull at the drink in the bottle, and his second draught made him think that it wasn't so bad after all, and that Ned's conduct in drinking three or four mugfuls in quickish succession, (an allowance doubled by Mr. Frant,) not such a very heathenish, unaccountable performance as it had at first seemed to him to be. And it may be added here that, before Bob left Here- fordshire, he had by some odd process persuaded himself that the weak, acid cider, which formed the ordinary drink of the country, was one of the very best inventions for quenching one's thirst in summer weather that ever was devised by man's ingenuity; though perhaps if he had seen the process of gathering the apples, storing them, grinding them to pulp, and pressing the same, he might have thought the result would be none the worse for a little more cleanliness and care. Ned's cigar-case came into marked requisition DIBBING PROPOSED. 401 after the luncheon had been satisfactorily disposed of; and then the two boys sauntered quietly off down the stream. It was much too bright now for fly-fishing, and neither Frant nor Ned expected any success with the rod again till evening. More than once, however, they observed, as they walked along the edge of the river in many places there- abouts fringed with trees and alder bushes a rise, as of a good fish, at some insect that appeared to have dropped into the water from the foliage. The second or third of these occurrences served to remind Bob of what the interest of the new scenery and the excitement of the morning's new expe- riences had hitherto effectually closed his recollec- tion upon; namely, the hooks with shortened shanks which he had so carefully prepared the preceding evening. " By Jove, Jack," he exclaimed, " we've for- gotten all about ' dibbing/ or ' daping,' as Ned called it. However, better late than never." And in a very brief space his fly-link was de- tached, wound round his cap, and replaced with a three foot length of strong, round, clear gut, with one of the said hooks appended at its termina- tion. Next, he and Jack, set to work to hunt for and capture the requisite baits. A stray may -fly or two was seen and chased ; a couple of small brown ' hairy- worms,' also, were obtained ; three large D D 4*02 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. flies, with white triangular patches on the seg- ments of their body ; four green grasshoppers ; and sundry cockchafers, or ' may-bugs/ These were all enclosed in a wide-mouthed bottle, brought on purpose. Jack refused to try his own luck at this new kind of fishing, saying he would rather see how his cousin ' came on/ So Bob reeled in his line till little but the gut depended from the top, baited his hook with a big fly, and carefully keeping himself out of sight cannily insinuated the top of his rod with the line and bait depend- ing, among the boughs overhanging the water, and suffered the fly just to hang clear of the surface. It had scarcely reached the proper level, when a fish rose at it, sucked it in, and turned downwards again. Bob was too much surprised by the novelty, as well as suddenness of the action and experience, to give the slight jerk necessary at the proper moment ; and so the fish ' tasted the hook/ and summarily rejected both it and the fly. But the experiment was repeated a few paces further on. Again a fish rose, but just as it seemed on the point of opening its mouth to gulp down the fly, something appeared to render it dubious of the prudence of such a step, and it darted off to a dis- tance of two or three feet. Thence it returned a second time to the bait, only to repeat the same movements ; and so for four or five several times : BAITING WITH A MILLER. 403 after which it evidently made up its mind that all was not quite right, and resolved to have nothing more to say to the suspicious morsel. Bob thought his bait was too small for his hook (which it pro- bably was,) so that the hook showed too much. Jack would have had him put on a smaller hook, but old Frant coming up said, " No, put on a larger bait. See, here's a middling sized < miller/ Try it." The ' miller,' in spite of its questionable name, turned out only to be a half-grown specimen of the tiger-moth caterpillar, and Bob was not long in acting on the suggestion of the fisherman, and trying his luck again. At the first place* at which he let it dangle over the water no fish seemed to notice it. At a second station, dropping it in under the thick foliage of overhanging boughs, it was instantly taken ; and as instantly he found the fish was hooked. A short and sharp struggle 3nded in landing a nice trout of about three quarters of a pound. Rebaiting, this time with a cock- chafer, a monster of a chub seized it ; leaping at least, thrusting his head and shoulders quite clear of the water in order, as it were, to meet it. The rod bent with just the action of his mouth ; for he was not hooked ; the size of the bait pre- vented the hook from touching any part of his jaw or palate. Baiting again, and more carefully, 404 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. and having proof positive that the hook would 'bite' this time, by trying it on his own palm, Bob went some little distance lower down to another clump of alder branches, keeping himself carefully out of sight as he approached it. Just as he came within three yards of its nearer end, a suck, fol- lowed by sundry rings and ripples, spreading widely from close to the bank just under the end boughs, warned him that a fish, and a good one, had just risen there, and would doubtless rise again, if he managed rightly. Throwing himself down on his stomach at eight or ten feet from the brink, and putting off his cap, he wormed himself along till he could just manage to see the water near the bank without being seen himself; and then, thrusting forward his rod, he dropped his bait, in the canniest way, so as just to make it appear to have fallen from the sprays above. The little ripple occasioned by its fall had not spread six inches from the centre when a noble fish sailed deliberately up to it as though conscious that haste would not only be undignified to a trout of his dimensions, but altogether unnecessary under the circumstances operfed his jaws, and took it in, and the same moment turned to go beneath the shade again. But he had barely commenced his wheel round before he felt a little tug, accompanied by a sharp prick. Could it be a bee he had A STRUGGLE. 405 taken instead of a cockchafer? At all events, the circumstance was so unusual, that instead of swimming deliberately beneath the boughs, as had, a moment since, clearly been his inten- tion, he gave a sudden leap from the water, shaking himself and quivering throughout his length as he did so ; and then a second and a third. But he couldn't spit the treacherous insect out, and the sting was worse than ever ; and so he changed his tactics, and headed down for the depths of the pool which was his dominion. But there was a force acting upon him in a contrary direction to that in which his own efforts urged him, and he found it intensely difficult to keep his head down with this upward tension upon him; and so he changed his plan again, and shot off down the stream. And now the reel whizzed and sang in earnest. But Bob's anticipations, some- how, did not respond to the joyous sound. At the rate the startled fish was going, his line would be run out in a minute or less ; and he could not save it by running along the bank, so as to keep pace with the finny fugitive, on account of the trees and stubs. Besides, he was but too certain that, if it came to a pull, it must inevitably end in a break. So he held his rod well up and back, and stoppered the line as much as he durst, by pressing his thumb upon it as it passed along the rod from the reel ; 406 PLAY-HOUKS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. not heeding at the moment the sense of heat created by the friction, and which presently ended in a sense of being cut and smarting. In fact it drew blood. But the device was effectual, or seemed to be so ; for the trout headed back, and careered up stream as fast as, a moment before, he had rushed in the opposite direction. Finding the turn which things and the fish had taken, Master Bob receded quickly from the bank, reeling up as fast as he could turn the handle of his reel, and except for one single second kept up a continuous pull upon the fish. As long as it was content to swim upwards the angler was content to humour it. But swimming against the stream and with a continuous strain upon his jaw and, through it, on his whole frame, was work much too hard and dis- agreeable to last; and so, after making some twenty yards above the place at which he was hooked, he turned short round and, as Jack styled it, ' reversed his engines/ Bob was prepared for this, and shortening his line still more, coming within sight of the water again as he did so, he gave the signal for the struggle, which he knew was the decisive one and must be fought out then arid there. The trout, startled by his near approach, as well as terrified and provoked by the pain and restraint of the hook and line and rod, leaped and Struggled vehemently. But Bob had a great ad- ALMOST MASTERED. 407 vantage in having him almost entirely under his rod, and though he had to give out little lengths of line to each of the fish's violent plunges, yet at the end of these violent efforts the gain on the trout's part had been only to get one length of the rod further from that terrible apparition on the bank, and at the cost of some approach to positive ex- haustion. Bob reeled in a yard and a half of the line that he had lost almost immediately, and then assumed the offensive, by towing the fish which now he began to hope would really be his up stream. But the trout was not so far beat yet as to submit quietly to this, and so he plunged down- wards, digging towards the bottom with his head most pertinaciously. The play of the rod rendered this dodge vain, and again he was led along almost unresistingly. Presently another flurry leaps and rushes, fewer and feebler and shorter and at the end he almost lay on his side on the surface, spent and motionless. " Now, Jack," shouted Bob to his cousin, who had looked on with the most anxious and absorb- ing interest while this exciting struggle had lasted; " now, Jack, down on to that little stub kneeling, I mean and when I bring him towards you, as soon as ever you see his eye out of water, grab him by the gills and lift him out. But if you miss him, don't touch the line for your life." 408 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. " All right, old fellow. I know/' was all Jack said in reply. And, in less than half a minute, while Bob was gently and gradually swaying the passive fish towards his cousin, the latter had placed himself so as to be able to insert the fore- finger of his right hand under the gill-cover of the panting" fish, and, a moment later, lift it triumph- antly on to the sward. It was the most beautifully marked trout Bob had ever seen, and much the largest he had caught with rod and line ; and he was proportionally proud of his success. Just as the feat was finally accomplished, Ned came floating down in his coracle, and heartily partook in his brother's gratification at the capture of what he called such a ' stunning slockdolager/ Not very long after this Sellack was passed, and they proceeded leisurely on towards Fawley. About three quarters of a mile above the point at which they had crossed in the morning, on turning a bend in the river they came in sight of a tempting-look- ing series of streams, below which careered a for- midable looking rapid ; and then again, below the rapid, other streams. Ned, who had not been working his rod for the last hour or two, deter- mined to fish the streams both above and below the rapid. He had but very moderate success, and, raising his killick from time to time to shift his place in the stream, he had arrived within fifteen Trying the depth of the Wye Wye Coracle Fishing. p. 409 CAPSIZED. 409 or eighteen yards of the commencement ' of the rapid. At this point the force of the stream was already sufficient to ' drag his anchor/ So he thought it best to lay in his rod, and take in his stone without delay. While lifting the latter, he had, of course, to lean to the other side of his coracle as much as possible, in order to obviate the weight of the stone and the lift. Unluckily, the stone hung against the coracle-side, and he did not succeed in lifting it in clear. A stronger effort re* suited in breakage of the rope at the tie round the stone, chafed and weakened, as it doubtless was, by wear. The counterpoise thus lost, and himself con- sequently, as it were, thrown bodily to the side he was already leaning to, the coracle upset instantly ; rising high out of the water as he slipped in, and ; immediately after, recovering its proper position as it glanced off sideways from the immersed fisher- man. Paddle, rod, fishing-basket and contents, and hat, all danced off as he disappeared beneath the water ; his countenance, expressive of intense discomfiture, being the last part of him seen. But his disappearance was only for a moment. Fortu- nately the depth was not more than such as to reach to his breast ; and, catching the coracle with one hand, his rod with the other, and his fishing- basket a moment after with the hand that held the rod, he was still able to stem the current, and walk 410 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. out on the side furthest from the startled boys. Meanwhile, down went the hat and paddle, dancing and toppling among the broken water in a wonder- ful way. Bob needed no telling to secure them. He hastened to the end of the rapid, and watching the hat as it came into the comparatively still water of the shallow below, walked in and secured it ; and, half a minute after, the paddle also ; at the expense only of legs wet up to the knee. All three could afford to laugh at the catastrophe now. But it had looked very frightful, so close to the commencement of such a fierce, turbulent current. If he had been carried over by it, it seemed impossible for him to have escaped ; or, if he had, he must have been sorely cut and bruised by the sunken, jagged rocks over which the stream rushed so fiercely : while, as it had turned out, he had come off with only the loss of half-a-dozen fish, a water- proof pocket very full of water, and a most thorough ducking. His clothes, however, were thin and would soon dry, and so, going to the nearest house he could see, he undressed, and in less than an hour was once more dressing himself in dry garments. Meanwhile, Bob and Jack had wandered on and had rounded the How Caple bend of the river, scarcely caring to fish at all ; now laughing a little at the laughable phase of Ned's misadventure ; then becoming quite grave TREE-PIPIT'S NEST. 411 as they thought of his peril, and very thankful that he was no worse. Deviating a little in one of the meadows from the track along the bank, Jack lit upon a lark's nest, the eggs in which were very noticeable by reason of the reddish brown cast which entirely pervaded their colouring; quite different from the ordinary dark c pepper and-salt' style of colour characterizing that bird's eggs. This incident set them to work at a f fytte' of egg hunting; and, in the course of the next half-hour, they found another lark's nest, the eggs in which were as much darker, as the last were redder, than the ordinary or typical lark's egg. Bob, leaving this nest, took a run and leaped over a low hedge if hedge it could be called at all with a ditch of three or four feet wide the other side of it; and as he ran forward two or three steps after alighting from the leap, he startled a small bird from its nest on the ground under the shelter of a little grass-crowned unevenness, near the foot of a bank which sloped up to a tree- covered hill or bank ; and in which nest were four eggs. To Jack these eggs were new, though far from uncommon in most parts ; only they had never chanced to light upon them in any of their previous nesting excursions. They were the tree- pipit's ; the nest being made of moss and thin roots and benty grass, and lined with a few long PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. hairs. Bob had seen many of these nests before, and told his cousin that the eggs varied in colour greatly ; some being of a dirty, dusky brown with a tinge of purple, others of a more rufous or reddish coloured shade. While still admiring these eggs, Jack ex- claimed, " I say, Bob, what is that bird that's singing that way ? I have heard it ever so many times to-day. I fancied it was a lark at first, but it can't be that/' Bob listened for a moment or two and looked up : for the note evidently came from above them. Jack looked too not the first time that day. But both looked in vain for some minutes. The notes were intermittent, and never seemed to come twice from the same point, but very sweet they were, and more plaintive, it seemed to the listeners, than the skylark's song; which had always appeared to both of them to sound so cheery and happy : as Bob expressed it, as if the singer " felt so precious jolly." At last Bob cried out, " I see him ! I see him ! There he is, Jack, now right over that bend in the river. There ! don't you see him ?" But Jack didn't see him, arid it was not till another songster of the same class commenced his WOODLARKS AND THEIR SONG. 413 cliant just over their heads, that he did succeed in espying the origin of the music they were listening to. Bob made no doubt as to what the bird was. He was sure it must be a woodlark. " Such a jolly country for woodlarks, Jack. Plenty of woods, plenty of meadows, plenty of cornfields. Don't I wish we could stumble on one of their nests \" " Oh ! look, Bob, how they go round and round in circles as they sing ; sailing along, instead of soaring up, as the skylarks do. Isn't it a sweet song?" " That it is, old fellow. But come along, let us look along this bank, and just under these low bushes, and where the bank breaks off into the pasture. It's just the place, I should say, for a woodlark's nest. No harm in looking at all events, till old Ned comes down here." So they set to work, thoroughly searching every likely looking tuft and bush, but no nest appeared. Half-an-hour was so spent, and then they heard Ned's whistle. " No go, Jack," cried Bob. We must be off, and join my brother. Here, let's stow these lark's eggs better, and put the bottle into my fishing- basket." So saying, he flung his rod lightly down on the ground beside him, the end of it switching smartly 414 rLAY-HOUES AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. through a tuft of dry sedgy-looking grass. To their surprise, as it did so, a bird flew out from close beside the tuft, which one of them had passed very near to but a few seconds before. A search followed immediately, and a very close one it had to be, before the cunningly concealed nest was detected. But at last it was found ; and no doubt rested in either of their minds that, after all, it was a woodlark's. Very like the tree-pipit's as to fabric, materials, and general appearance, as well as position, it was ; and contained four eggs of a pale, reddish -white ground, spotted and speckled with dull, reddish brown. The acquisition was hailed with all the more satisfaction, because it had become so altogether unexpected. Ned's whistle came ringing up again from the river a little below them, and was replied to by a shout from Bob ; who, with his cousin, was in a few minutes' time walking along the bank abreast with the coracle, and inquiring of its crew f{ how he liked the sensa- tion of being hung up to dry ?" It was now getting well on into the evening. They had none of them seen old Frant for the last three or four hours. In fact, he had gone on to settle a little bit of business at a place he called Hole-i'-the-wall ; and was to meet them again somewhere near a place at which they would ob- serve the river divided so as to enclose a small THE EVENING RISE. 415 island or two in its embrace. Meeting with him according to fixture, they proceeded towards Ross ; the boys, well-tired, in the coracle ; the men . on foot. The sun grew very low while they were still some little distance from the town, and very beautiful was the scenery in the evening light. But, for the fisherman's eye, the scene presented by the river was absorbing. Insects fluttered out in all directions spinners, and duns, and four-winged flies, and gnats, and small moths thousands on thousands ; and then it seemed as if every fish in the stream was up and doing. A dozen rises at once in a space that might have been covered with a tablecloth ! The whole river alive with leaping fish ! The very air full of the sounds created by the silent fishy tribe ! Fatigue was forgotten. The rods were once more prepared for action, and by Franfa advice, full-sized light or white-winged flies were put on. There was a beautiful shallow, covered with a succession of first-rate streams, a little nearer the town ; and into it all three visitors plunged, half-leg deep. Speedily all were fast to a hooked fish; and, for half an hour after sunset, every throw, almost, was responded to by a rise, or two, or three; though the great majority were missed, owing to its being quite too dusk to dis- tinguish the rising fish. Bob caught one heavy fish which gave him some trouble to master; but 416 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. put it in his basket he did, at last ; saying to Jack as he did so, " Well, old fellow, how do you get on ? I have just got a two-pounder, a chub." Ned, too, was busy, and landed two over a pound and half each, of which one, he saw, was a trout. And Jack was not idle either, nor yet unsuccessful. It turned out, on reaching their quarters and counting their catch, that BoVs big one, as well as Ned's second, were both grayling, and very good ones, too ; and the total tale, (including Frant's salmon, which Ned bought of him,) was one salmon, twenty-three trout, eleven grayling, and forty- one ' coarse fish' ; besides a great many scurling, all of which were honestly returned to the river as young, unkillable salmon. A good wash, an equally good supper, and bed, now came in quick succession ; and the boys, alto- gether enchanted with their day on the Wye with all it had produced of new and beautiful and exciting were soon fast asleep, and recruiting for the travels and toils of another day. CHAPTER XVIII. Down the Wye Ned's great Grayling Hareborough once more Sparrows' Nests Starlings Waterhens' and Nightin- gales' Nests Scarborough and Dr. Hazlehurst The Doctor gives Bob a new light in Fly-fishing Stunning Sea-fishing with White Fly At School once more Pursuits there A Day's Shooting with Sir Cuthbert Good-bye. HOWEVER, when Saturday morning arrived, it seemed that neither of the trio was very anxious for a very distant or toilsome ramble. Ned probably by reason of his immersion was quite sufficiently stiff and tired to prefer lounging about not far from his quarters, and Bob and Jack were in much the same state of feeling. And a quiet stroll along the river in the afternoon, with another touch at the evening rise, seemed to involve quite sufficient of exertion to content all parties. Sunday morning saw them all three at Ross Church ; and then, lunch over, they deter- mined to make for the little quiet church they had passed on Friday, with the huge, half-hollow yew- tree in the churchyard, that sheltered the parish bier, A dog-cart was soon at the door, and pre- E E PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. cisely ten minutes before service time they reached the farmhouse near Brockhampton Church ; the quiet little church in the quiet little parish; that had once with the help of part of the porch held a congregation of 105 people : and that was the Sunday after poor young Lloyd was buried him who was drowned after leaving his club on Saturday night, being overpowered by the swollen Wye while attempting to ferry himself across. The following day they were on the look-out for Dr. Noble's arrival, and were gratified by meeting with him, and by his proposal that they should arrange to go down the river together the next day. What Bob and Jack thought of Symond's Yatt and the New Weir, and Windcliff, and Mon- mouth and Chepstow, and the Double- view, need not be told here. It is enough to say their enjoy- ment of all was complete. The two days thus spent with the Doctor were indeed days of real pleasure; and the fishing on the morrow seemed hardly to compensate for having to part with one who entered so thoroughly into their views and wishes and enjoyments, and seemed even to anticipate the thoughts that rose in their minds. Their return to Ross from Monmouth was made on foot, and chiefly by the river-side ; and Ned made one remark- able capture in the course of it. He happened to catch NOBLE GRAYLING. 419 sight of a fish, evidently of large size he fancied a grayling close under the bank, and behind a little miniature promontory that caused a sort of recess or bay to be formed just there. Hastily drawing back, he stripped all the feathers and hackle from his end-fly, snipped the two drop -flies entirely off, and caught the first insect which pre- sented itself. It happened to be a small yellow humble-bee. Putting it on his hook, he crept gently and quietly up to a point from which, with all his line reeled in to within a few inches of the fly-link, he was able to let the bee drop very softly, just over the top of the little promontory. It was seized and swallowed in an instant : and then succeeded a great struggle. The fish fought strongly and pertinaciously ; not fiercely and despe- rately like the trout, but doggedly and sullenly ; digging down and seeming to try by the mere force of its weight and strength to break line or steel. But it was not destined to succeed, and the fish-basket, in less than fifteen minutes, received the very finest grayling, nearly four pounds in weight, it had ever been Ned's good luck to see, or even hear of as caught with a fly. Quickly and pleasantly passed the remaining days of their sojourn in this beautiful country, and many a ramble did they enjoy, sometimes with their fishing-rods, and sometimes leaving those im- 420 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. plements at home. Bird's-nesting was not, in one sense, so successfully carried on as heretofore ; that is to say, many, indeed most, of the nests found which were numerous enough, it is true had young birds in them. But even Ned himself 'lazy Ned' as Bob rather disrespectfully used still to designate him to his face occasionally took much delight in watching birds supposed to have young ones to feed, until at last their precious deposit was discovered. He learned more than one lesson as to the wonderful intelligence and sagacity and self-command displayed by these little crea- tures in reference to their young, and though he still sneered a little at BoVs devotion to nests and eggs, he yet could not help being struck with the effects the pursuit had developed in him, and even more strikingly in his cousin Edwards. The three returned together to Mr. Benson's, and a famous day of sparrows'-nest hunting the two juniors had about the eaves of an old barn near by, and a couple of sheds which skirted one side of the barn yard. It was a regular raid upon those bold little birds which, from long impunity, had become so numerous that it was thought they really did more harm than good. Certainly, nearly an acre of wheat in the home field, last year, had been consumed or wasted by them; and it was remarkable with what perseverance their depreda- SPARROWS' NESTS AND THEIR SITES. 421 tions were carried on. In many cases, too, not satisfied with breaking up and plundering the ears of corn in the field, whole heads were severed and carried off to some distance, and very possibly, left with half the grains gone to waste, in the pasture near the farm-buildings. Moreover, two ends of Mr. Benson's house were covered by fine pear trees, carefully trained, and the back of the green-house was covered with ivy ; while a couple of Scotch firs, in a shrubbery near, were one mass of ivy round their trunks and out on their thicker branches, for nearly thirty feet of their height. The pear trees and the ivy alike were half full of sparrows' nests ; and, in all, something like three hundred and fifty eggs and young ones were obtained from these sources, together with the barn and shed. And wonderfully, various were the shapes and shades and markings of all these eggs, notwithstanding the degree of general resemblance which characterized them all, and sufficiently pro- claimed them to have been laid by the house sparrow. Three nests of these birds, moreover, were taken from forsaken or usurped martins' nests. But there was one nest in the receiver of a wooden pipe at one end of the house, which con- veyed the water to the butt from the eaves gutters, that Mr. Benson specially requested them to leave unmolested; notwithstanding the very incon- PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. venient situation selected for it. It was a starling's nest : and he told the boys that, on observing it was the intention of the two starlings to build there, he shot one of them immediately, in order to prevent that undesirable consummation. The survivor had paired again in less than forty- eight hours, . and the work of construction was again commenced. He shot one a second time. Again the survivor paired, and again the nest was begun with anew. Six several times did this take place : and then, touched with such per- severance, he resolved they should be no further molested ; that he would run the risk of overflow- ing pipes rather. Now there were young ones in the nest, and not till they had flown would he wish to have their home removed. In a large pond in the upper garden also, there was a nest which he pointed out to them, as worth notice; that of a moorhen. It was built on a willow-branch which projected horizontally over, and in fact rested on, or rather, partly under, the surface of the water. If the pond had been flooded, as it was sometimes liable to be, he felt doubtful whether the buoyancy of the nest would have saved the contents ; for, one day, on looking in to see how many eggs there were, he found that very slight pressure on the branch sufficed to cover them all with water. There were now young ones, HAREBOROUGH. 423 which, he said, were still gathered into the nest at night. This was lately become too small to accommodate all, and so the old birds he fancied one of them mainly, and that the cock had been busy in constructing what seemed to be a sup- plementary or nursery nest at the side of the pond, and which he had certainly seen occupied by some of the chicks and one of the parent birds more than once. Jack was only able to stay two or three days at his uncle's residence, and then went to spend the bulk of his holidays at his own home. There Bob joined him just two days before the time fixed for going to Mr. Spencer's, in order to have the pleasure of the voyage to Scarborough, and saw as many sights as could be conveniently managed in so limited a time. Arrived at Hareborough, it was difficult to say which party evinced more pleasure, the visitors or the visited. They had not been there ten minutes before Tay had them out to see two nightingales' nests which she had found after much watchful perseverance ; one in some shrubs, the other in a boundary quickset-hedge of the garden. Neither of them had ever been neat or compact structures : and the one in the hedge was remarkably the reverse. It was not even symmetrical. The margin on one side was three quarters of an inch 4,24 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLT DAYS. lower than on the other, and irregularly so ; as if a piece had been cut out by an awkward manipu- lator of a very blunt pair of scissors, or edgeless schoolboy's pocket knife. It was set near an old post which was quite surrounded by the growth of the quicks, near a small accumulation of dead leaves and clippings that had fallen in and lodged there. Oak leaves of last year, bits of straw and small twigs, formed the chief part of the materials, and there was one addle egg left with the three young ones. The other nest contained five young ones. And next Tay succeeded, before long, in pointing out to the two boys at least three of the parent birds, who were very chary of showing themselves if any of the human species were visible in any part of the garden at all near their nests ; and under no circumstances seemed fond of leaving their leafy coverts except on a transit from one to another. They had never sung a note since the young had been hatched, though they croaked fiercely if any one presumed to approach their nests too closely. Up to the time the nest was completed, or nearly so, there had been no stint of song; after that, and until the time of hatching, little detached fragments of music had been occasionally given -, and Mr. Spencer had several times succeeded, after one of these little efforts had occurred, in pro- voking several repetitions of it by whistling an OFF TO SCARBOROUGH. 425 imitation of some half dozen or so of the nightin- gale's notes. The owls in their tree, too, were visited and in- spected, and a walk among the teukes and oyster catchers taken, and then, almost too quickly, came the day iixed for the departure of the ladies of the family by train, and of Mr. Spencer and Bob and Jack in the ' Blue/ for the Yorkshire coast. The night spent by Mrs. Spencer and her daugh- ters in London permitted the voyagers to arrive first at their journey's end, thanks to the favour- able eight-knot breeze which never failed them till they dropped anchor in Scarborough Bay. The day after their arrival, when the two lads had been to the harbour, listened to the band at the Spa, been round the castle above and below, and were longing for the morrow to come with its proposed trip all hands having shipped for the voyage to Flamborough Head and luncheon there, whom should they meet but Dr. Hazlehurst, in company with his nephew, one of their class-fellows in Jack's first half? Under his guidance they went to the Museum, and not only had the skeleton of the Briton, disinterred at Gristhorpe, specially pointed out to them in connexion with what they had them- selves seen onTurley Moor, but had a sort of fami- liar lecture on fossils given them; the effect of which was to lead to the lightening of their purses 426 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. by the purchase of a couple of geologist's hammers, and some diligent work on the rocks to the north- ward of the castle. They rode out with him, too, to the great Scamridge Dikes, which gave them quite a new idea of what ancient earthworks were ; difficult as it appeared to be to assign the original intention, or the subsequent variations of it, of these vast intrenchments. The supposed Druidical circle at Cloughton Moor, too, was visited, and, as the Doctor was a botanist as well as an antiqua- rian, and the district afforded a capital field for that pursuit (besides being one he wished to explore), their rides and rambles with him had an interest added which seemed to have something altogether new and enjoyable in it. He set them on distin- guishing the ferns, and to their great delight they made out fifteen or sixteen species, including the royal fern (Osmunda Reyalis), moon wort (Botry- chium I/unare), adder's tongue (Ophioglossum Vul- gare)j sea spleenwort (Asplenium Marinum), wall rue (A. Ruta Muraria] ; without specifying the commoner or more ordinary sorts. But the crown- ing day in their recollections was the result of a question of his to Bob in one of their rides, f< Have you been fishing since you came ?" " No, sir," said the boy ; " I did not know there was anywhere to fish, except in the harbour. And there, neither Jack nor I had any inclination to employ our skill." A HINT. 427 " Well, but you might have gone out in a coble, and got some line-fishing in the sea." " Oh ! we never thought of that. I wonder if Ned would like to go, Jack ?" " I'll tell you what Ned would like to do in that way," rejoined the Doctor. " Get some large hooks and tie a couple of good-sized white wings on each the web of an ordinary quill will do the hooks to be tied on good strong gut of course; tie these at the end of any line or bit of string sufficiently long say ten or twelve yards and the other end to a tolerably pliable stick of four or five feet in length. Hold this in your hand, or stick it in the stern of your boat or coble, and row about in the right place and at the right time ; and I'll undertake you'll have some fun/' " Thank you, Dr. Hazlehurst. But how about the ' right place and time' ?" "Well, I have several times in the evening, about this time of year, when the sea was as still and smooth as a looking-glass, seen fish rising, almost within throw of the broken rocks on the shore at the north side of the castle rocks, and on towards what they call the Castle-holms. I saw them last night about seven, and on Sunday even- ing too. These white flies are used in that way, and with success, I know, in many places ; and I dare say they are here, also." "I vote we try, Jack, anyhow," cried Bob. 428 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. " Let's go and hunt up old Lazy directly we get back. He wont be far off Annie Spencer, I dare say." There was no difficulty in finding Ned, and none in persuading him to join in the expedition : that very evening, indeed, if it still continued as calm and fine as at present. A dozen flies were tied in the next hour, with the addition of some silver twist to rib the other- wise bare shank of the hook with. Ned, while these preparations were proceeding, had gone out to secure lines or their substitutes, and when he came back was observed to have brought in addi- tion a large well-filled reel or winch, that had cer- tainly not been brightened by use for some few years past ; and a most formidable-looking imple- ment in the fishing-rod way. This proved to be an eighteen-foot salmon rod, that had in its former days seen and done good service. Bob and Jack were inquisitive as to the uses of this. Ned was as mysterious as they were curious. Mr. Spencer, on hearing what was in contemplation, assured the youths that Tom Ling would never forgive them if they passed him and the ' BlueV boat over to "take one o' they outlandish cobles"; and so our old friend was duly warned to be below the Castle rock at half-past six in the evening. Ned, his brother, and Jack, stepped into the boat as the clock chimed a quarter to seven, and Tom FLY-FISHING IN THE SEA. 429 immediately pulled out to about thirty or thirty- five yards clear of the broken rocks. Before they reached the boat, they had seen in the placid water certain signs which would have been called ' rises' in a trout stream ; one or two, and then three or four, here and there. By the time the lines were rigged and the short sticks taken in hand though Ned declared he disdained to touch such clownish apparatus, and sat still in his dignity the rises had increased in number greatly. Tom began to row steadily and quickly, but quietly too, among them wherever he saw them thickest ; and it was soon evident that they would not go home empty. A fish rose at BoVs tail fly for he and Jack both had rigged their lines with a leader and a bob-fly each and after a short fight it was hauled in. Then it was Jack's turn ; and his line came in with a fish at each fly. Ned, seeing the turn things were likely to take, had laid aside his as- sumed indifference, had fitted the joints of his rod together, and run the line through the rings, and then proceeded to affix a regular casting-line of very stout gut, the upper portion of it, indeed, of double or treble gut twisted ; the said casting- line being garnished by a white fly, similar to those in use by the lads, as a leader ; one of the large white flies, so useful in the evening rise on the Wye, as first drop ; and a genuine grey-drake for the second 430 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF- HOLIDAYS. ditto. Before his preparations were complete the excitement of the boys and Tom Ling was exces- sive. The sea was alive with rising fish ; that is, they appeared to be rising. In point of fact they were in pursuit of shoals of small white fish, pro- bably the young of the herring, which, driven on by their hungry foes, rose to the surface and often leaped out, little sparkling gems in the evening sunshine. So incredibly numerous were these seeming rises that old Tom pronounced the sea to " be baling with 'em." Three or four more of the pursuing fish which were sethe or coal-fish had been quickly caught by the lads, when Ned arose in his complete array, and steadying himself about midships, wielded his two-handed rod and made a scientific cast into the very midst of a score of up- thrust noses. The tail-fly was taken in an instant. The rush of the hooked fish through the water gave the other two flies life-like action, and first one of them, and then the other, was seized in quick suc- cession. And now came a trial of rod and tackle. The fish dug downwards with a strain like that of a heavy weight. The strong rod bent and qui- vered ; and, at last, to lessen the strain on it, Ned actually had to lower it, and let the upper joints dip into the water, still of course keeping it well bent. Fighting against each other, as well as against the rod, the three captives soon tired them- selves, and in seven or eight minutes were reeled MARVELLOUS SUCCESS. 431 np to the side of the boat, and carefully lifted in in succession. The three together could not have weighed less than eight or ten pounds. A minute more, and Ned was prepared to repeat his throw. Watching his opportunity, and being perfect master of his rod so as to be able to throw to a distance of fifteen or sixteen yards without trouble, he dropped his flies again in the very thick of an eager shoal, and in ten seconds three more were fast. As before, after more trial of the steadfastness of the tackle than of the skill of the fisher, all three were lifted in, and preparations made for another throw. Six several times the fisherman made his throw with the same result ; except that, the last time, the gut on which the grey-drake was tied, frayed by the end of the hook, parted, and the fish went off with the hook in his mouth.* Both Bob and Jack had been far too much interested in Ned's wonder- ful success to prosecute their own humbler style of fishing during the last half-hour ; and it soon ap- peared that there were to be no further chances of taking fish for that evening. The rise gradually but rapidly lessened ; and, by ten minutes after Ned's last capture, scarcely *a dimple in the calm sea-surface could be seen in any direction. But it was a treat to listen to the enthusiastic accounts given by the boys of the evening's sport. " Fly- * This account is simply and literally true. 432 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. fishing in the sea, and the fish fighting to see which should get the fly !" And Tom's wondering admi- ration of the rod, and line, and flies, and above all of the casting; his "Well, if ever I see!" "If that don't beat cock-fighting !" " Dash my old buttons ! that caps everything!" "Dash't, if they 'on't come right into th' owd boat arter they feathers, next !" and the like. Tay was wild to go with them the next evening, and Miss Spencer was almost as eager. However, the weather changed the next day, and no opportunity occurred again during the sojourn of the two schoolboys with their friends, for any more sea-flyfishing. Five mornings after this, Bob and Jack resumed their places in class at school, hearty and hopeful and in earnest. Their holidays had been most thoroughly enjoyed; but, with all their natural regret at leaving friends at once so kind and so dear, there had not been a particle of reluctance to go back to work, and to work in earnest. And besides, they carried back that, which they had been desired by their master to make good in their holidays, thoroughly well learned and appro- priated. In three days' time they were in full swing, and found not only no difficulty, but no little gratification, in working on so as to merit Dr. Noble's entire approval, and to obtain from him more than once the half dozen words of frank DIVERSIFIED PURSUITS. 433 commendation which he knew so well how to make so precious and so full of encouragement to those who really deserved them. Their play-hours and holidays were by no means exclusively, but still, not at all unusually, given up as heretofore to the old pursuits. True, there was no nesting, and little fly-fishing ; but there were river-insects in plenty to imitate with their colours as well as they could : there were also their eers's J OO to re-arrange, as well as the accessions, made during the holidays, to be labelled and catalogued ; there was this caterpillar, or that, that fell in their way, to be taken home and tended and watched in its daily growth or progressive changes, among others those of the emperor and egger moths ; beautiful both with different kinds of beauty. There was also what bade fair to grow up into a liking for elementary botany. Plants that both of them had passed a score of times without notice, or only such general notice as all natural objects and scenes and incidents met with from them, were now gathered and examined ; and such sayings as " Well, Jack, isn't this curious ? How I wonder what it's called V or, " I say, Bob, look how beautiful this plant is, you could almost fancy it had a real life. Fll take it and ask the Doctor what it is," were often heard as they rambled joyously along. F F 434 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. One day, in the course of a long walk, they turned into a marl-pit which they had visited more than once before, and in which they had found agglutinated masses of indurated marl, which, on being broken, showed beautiful ramifications of spar yellowish white next the marl stone, and enclosing other crystallizations of a bright, but still dark brown colour. It was Calcareous Spar, they had ascertained afterwards ; and many speci- mens of the perfect form of the crystals had been pointed out to them at the Museum. On the present occasion they made a discovery which set their eyes and hands to work, on more than one subsequent occasion, in a direction never before taken by them at Elmdon. For Bob, taking up a heavy hammer which belonged to one of the men at work in the pit, had smitten with it a large lump of stone that lay near a heap of similar masses, a little on one side of the roadway in. It broke into three or four fragments, two of them superficial. True, there was the calc-spar he expected to find, yet not in a species of reticula- tion, or honeycomb sort of form, as he had anti- cipated : but in the very centre of a section of an organized form, which he had partly laid bare, and partly split across, by the blow. In two words, he had lit upon a large ammonite, and the blow had done accidentally, what it would have taken a FOSSIL HUNTING. 435 practised fossil-hunter half a day to have done as well and effectually. The superficial splinters had laid the whole surface of the fossil bare, and the cross fracture satisfied curiosity as to the entire dimensions of the one-time shell-fish. From this time forth no opportunity was lost of picking up, or grubbing out, or hammering with a will, to procure some new fossil ; and their kind friend at the Museum gave them many a hint, and once went with them to some rocks, not far from Langton Tower, which contained the best fossi- liferous deposit in the neighbourhood. But with all these pursuits neither Bob nor Jack were ever slack at joining the school games ; and indeed, the latter, helped by his emulation of his cousin a most healthy one indeed in its effects had become a first-rate hand at most games that required something more than mere animal strength. Bob's popularity among his schoolfellows con- tinued steadily to increase, and the influence he exerted quite without design or thought was really remarkable. Pettit's prophecy, on leaving for good, had been that, in one year's time, Bob would be captain of the eleven, and from the day Donaldson left, head boy of the school, and the acknowledged leader in all that made leadership useful or possible ; and his prophecy seemed in a fair way for fulfilment. 436 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. And thus the days and weeks wore on, and it was now the middle of November. There had been two or three sharp frosts, but now, milder, yet still, bracing weather had returned. Bob and Jack had been out for an hour's run before afternoon school, and had noticed a carriage standing at the Doctor's door as they came to the school-gates from the other direction. As they entered, they almost ran on to Dr. Noble himself, who said, on seeing them rather abashed by their unceremonious approxima- tion to him, " Never mind, my boys, no fault of yours. But I was just inquiring for you. Sir Cuthbert Graham is in my study, and wants to see you. You had better go in at once." Passing out on the errand he was bent on, the Doctor left them to go to the room indicated, where they found Sir Cuthbert and another gentle- man waiting Dr. Noble's return. " Well, lads, how are you ? Too deep in Thucy- dides and Tacitus to go over for a couple of days to the Park ? I'm afraid you are, from what your master says of you." " Try us, Sir Cuthbert," replied Bob, in his open straightforward way. " I'll answer for one of the two; and Jack's safe for another, I think." " Very well, then. Get yourselves ready by five o'clock, and my mother will take you up when she ANOTHER VISIT TO THE PARK. 437 returns from a call she is going to make. Will you go with her, or with me and Mr. Forrester, who are on foot ?" " With you, sir, please," replied both in a breath. " Well, then, off with you, and pack up your traps, not forgetting the grammar and dictionary, you know." " Yes, Sir Cuthbert, and the slate and the copy- book too, hadn't we better ?" Sir Cuthbert shook his cane at him, and the two hurried off to make the preparations before school hours. At five o'clock it is hardly necessary to say they were ready, and Jack and Mr. Forrester were great friends before they had walked as far as the church. What both the boys called " no end of a jolly evening " was spent ; chess and draughts with Miss Graham, home talk with Lady Graham, and lots of talk with Mr. Forrester about the moor- land district he lived in in Yorkshire, making the hours slip away, they hardly knew how. The next morning, breakfast at nine, not second to the memorable Eyemouth breakfasts, as both affirmed; and then two saddle horses and two ponies appeared on the gravel drive. They soon were mounted and cantering off towards Elmdon. A short pause at the school-gates, whilst Bob dived in : coming out again a minute after, almost tumbling over himself in his hot haste, with a 438 PLAY-FOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. leathern roll in his hand his own and Jack's bus- kins. Mounting again, the party sped on towards Banks' house. The keeper and Watt were both in waiting, and in five minutes' time all were en route for the Spinney ; Sir Cuthbert and Mr. Forrester each with a gun in his hand} Banks with another, and Watt and a watcher in charge of sundry dogs. The wood was soon reached, and two or three spa- niels, with old Pepper, were sent into the thickets, and before they had gone a hundred yards Sir Cuthbert fired a snap shot at a rabbit, and another, the moment after, at a woodcock, killing them both in admirable style. Then a shot at a pheasant fol- lowed : then two more. Then hares and rabbits were seen scudding along here and there, or, the latter, skulking from covert to covert. Still Banks never used his gun. He carried it over his arm, muzzle downwards ; and it was clear to Bob it was not even so much as loaded. Strange as it was to see a keeper, in attendance on his master, carrying a gun, and not for his master's use, it was almost stranger, Bob thought, to see him carry it for no use at all. But he was following too closely on all Sir Cuthbert' s proceedings (as Jack was on Mr. For- rester's) to ask questions. They passed through the wood, and entered on the marsh. Three snipes rose as soon as they came near the spill, two of which fell to the three reports which were instanta- SHOOTING. 439 neously heard. A couple of ducks roused by the report flew up on Mr. Forrester's right, and one, the mallard, dropped to his remaining barrel. But neither was the marsh beaten thoroughly, any more than the wood had been. A few minutes, and a bankside was reached, well covered with dry brakes, and with a range of corn and turnip fields below, through which, as soon as they were high enough to be clear of the trees and alders, they saw the watcher was walking with a brace of setters. Twice they heard him shout " mark \" as partridges rose from the stubbles and flew to the covert afforded by the dry ferns. "Here, Robert," cried Sir Cuthbert, "take that gun from Banks, and carry it while he takes up those spaniels. 7 ' Bob did so, little thinking that the speaker was watching him very closely during the next five or ten minutes, during which one covey of birds was found and fired at, and one grouse killed by Mr. Forrester. Presently Sir Cuthbert spoke again " That's not the first time you've carried a gun, Robert?" The lad smiled, as he replied " Not quite, Sir Cuthbert." " Can you shoot flying ?" " A little." 440 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. "Do you like it?" " Oh ! don't I ?" " Well, I think you're to be trusted. Only bear this in mind; never let your gun point at any living creature that you don't want to shoot at. Whether loaded or not makes no difference. Let that be your rule." "Yes, Sir Cuthbert, that's just what Mr. Spen- cer said to me. And I think I shall never forget it." " Well, then, Banks has powder and shot for you. Go to him and he will load for you, and then come on here. Be quick." Bob and Banks were both quick, and in a minute or less, Bob was in line with the two gentlemen, and, as luck would have it, walked to within twenty yards of where a grouse lay. Rising with a crow and a hasty, shuffling flight, the old fellow was speeding off, when Bob, with a steady aim, fired and brought him down at forty yards' distance. " Well done, Benson. A capital shot. Keep it up. You'll be among the partridges in three minutes." So he was. Fifteen rose with a whirr. Bob could not select one to aim at specially, and fired without an aim at all, and of course missed. Sir Cuthbert and Mr. Forrester did not miss. A few minutes later, another covey of about ten : Bob de- termined not to fire without aim this time, and so STALKING GOLDEN PLOVER. 441 would not touch his trigger till he had got his eye on a bird, singled out from the rest. But it was beyond reach before he fired, and only a single feather, falling from it, testified that he had fired truly. The next time he was less baffled in making his selection, and winged his bird. And, after that, beginning to fall in with scattered birds, which rose singly, or in twos and threes only, he managed much better. Then they followed some of them on to the moor, and more shots at grouse were obtained. While reloading after a successful shot, Sir Cuthbert observed a large flock of golden plover at some distance in advance, which he thought were going to settle. After some five minutes of devious wheelings they did actually alight ; and Banks said it would be possible by a cautious approach to get within shot. So some- times on hands and knees, sometimes ad- vancing by the help of a gully, sometimes availing themselves of the partial concealment afforded by a mound or high-growing bunch of ling, Sir Cuthbert and Bob got within seventy yards of the unsuspecting birds. It was too far to do any good if they fired, and they could get no nearer undiscovered. Banks, who came up a moment or two after, suggested that he should himself go round to the opposite point, and show- ing himself there suddenly, most likely the plover 442 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. would fly directly for the shooters, if they kept themselves quite close. His suggestion was acted on, and in about ten minutes the birds, startled by the keeper's sudden appearance so near them, took flight and were within forty yards of the ambuscade before they detected it. As they wheeled, doubling on one another as they did so, one barrel from each gun was fired at the same instant, and then two separate reports were heard ; Bob not being able to work his second barrel so expeditiously as his grown-up friend ; and a lot of fallen and fluttering forms were seen in response. No less than eleven were picked up, and five minutes afterwards Banks came up with two more, which had flown off and fallen at a distance. Soon after this, the keeper espied a grouse sitting on a hill-end, which he said might easily be approached from below : and Bob was despatched to stalk it. Observing his land-marks accurately, he reached the point from which he was to make his final approaches, and going up very cautiously, got a sitting shot and bagged his bird. The course of the two shooters now lay along, but below a brow or moor-edge of some steepness; and Banks suggested, after passing along for two or three hundred yards, that it would be as well to ascend the slope and look out over the level. The two guns therefore separated to about thirty yards A GREY GOOSE SLAIN BY BOB. 443 apart, and proceeded to mount simultaneously. Just as they reached the level a cackle was heard over head. A string of geese alarmed at the sudden appearance of human heads so near them they were not above fifty yards high cackled and doubled up. All the feelings of the cruise with Mr. Spencer came upon Bob in a moment, and he blazed away at a couple which were the nearest to him, having the luck to bring one down. Sir Cuthbert was cooler, and killed three. Turning to rejoin Mr. Forrester, a brace of teal rose from a small hole containing water, and were both bagged by Sir Cuthbert, after Bob had missed one of them. But the latter amply consoled himself five minutes later by the to him great feat of killing a snipe ; the day's proceedings being finished up, as far as he was concerned, by the discharge of his gun, apparently at the foot of a stone wall. However, it seemed he had not fired without reason, as a little writhing, piebald body, of no great size, testified. It was a stoat, passing through the process of changing to its white or winter dress, which he had caught sight of just entering an interstice between two of the stones. On rejoining Mr. For- rester and Jack, it was found that they, too, had been successful, and Jack had fired his first shot at a sitting grouse, and valiantly slain the same. Bob's bag amounted to two grouse, four partridges, a grey 444 PLAY-HOURS AND HALF-HOLIDAYS. goose, a hare, a stoat, a snipe, and (it was supposed) four golden plover. The entire bag was seven hares, three rabbits, six brace and a half of pheasants, as many grouse, ten brace and a half of partridges, thirteen golden plover, two ducks, two teal, five snipes and a jack, besides the geese and a couple and half of cocks. One of the grouse, too, killed by Mr. Forrester, was a beautifully pied bird which had been frequently seen before, but had been always wary enough to escape. The horses were in waiting at the right place and time, and a quick canter soon carried the party back to the park. Another pleasant evening was spent, and the next morning Bob mounted his pony and accompanied Sir Cuthbert to Sollington, where the Scissett fox-hounds were to meet at ten o'clock, while Jack remained as Mr. Forrester's companion in a walk of investigation he wanted to make for the purpose of comparison to the Beacon and the British remains in its vicinity. Bob enjoyed his run immensely, and rode ' like a brick/ as Sir Cuthbert laughingly declared on their return in the afternoon. After this little break-in upon the regularity of their school-work and pursuits, they returned again to what Bob styled ' their sapping/ and kept it up till the close of the half-year. In the succeeding holidays, Jack's eyes were permitted to behold the FAREWELL. 445 mysteries of wild-fowl shooting, both on shore and afloat ; and he came to something the same conclu- sion on the subject as Bob had done some time before : though still, the day's mixed shooting about Turley had rather tended to convince him that there were other applications of the gun which need not exactly be sneezed at. But our space forbids us to follow the adventures and the progress of the two cousins any further now ; and all that we can add more is, that Dr. Noble's anticipations and Pettit's prophecies were fully verified in the case of our friend Eobert Benson. He did rise to be ( first boy ;' he was also facile princeps in cricket, and in most athletic exer- cises; while Jack was, in many things, both in school and the playing ground, a good second to his cousin ; his superior in one or two ; and in all bold, brave truthfulness, and manliness, and kind- liness, no whit his inferior. And thus, in their well-earned favour and re- spect with their master, and their deserved popu- larity with their schoolfellows, we must bid them Farewell. Schoolboy reader, are you as sorry to part with the two schoolboys as the Author is ? THE END. MESSRS, MACMILLAN & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Extra Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. FORTY YEARS IN A MOORLAND PARISH. Reminis- cences and Researches in Danby-in-Cleveland. By the Rev. J. C. ATKINSON, D.C.L., Incumbent of the Parish; Author of "A History of Cleveland," "A Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect." NA T1ON-" Is nothing less than an almost exhaustive monograph upon a typical English parish. 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With. Illustrations, Maps, and Plans. 8vo. 3is.6d. Entomology. BUCKTON (G. B.). MONOGRAPH OF THE BRITISH CICAD^E, OR TETTIGID^E. In 8 Parts Quarterly. 8s. each net. Part I. Jan. 1890. Vol. I. 33J. 6d. net. LUBBOCK (Sir John). THE ORIGIN AND- METAMORPHOSES OF INSECTS. Illustrated. Cr. 8vo. 35. 6d. SCUDDER (S. H.). FOSSIL INSECTS or NORTH AMERICA. Map and Plates. 2- vols. 410. 90^. net. Ornithology. COUES (Elliott). KEY TO NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. Illustrated. 8vo. 2/. zs. HANDBOOK OF FIELD AND GENERAL OR- NITHOLOGY. Illustrated. 8vo. los. net. FOWLER(W. W.). (See NATURAL HISTORY.) WHITE (Gilbert). (See NATURAL HISTORY.) INDEX. PAGE PAGE PAGE ABBEY (E. A.) . . -37 ABBOT (F. E.) . . . 33 ATTWELL (H.) . . 20 AUSTIN (Alfred) . 14 BERNARD (J-H.) . BERNARD (M.) . 25 . 12- ABBOTT(RCV. E.) 3,13,30,31,33 AcLAND(Sir H.W.). . 22 AUTENRIETH (Georg) . 7 AWDRY(F.) . .38 BERNERS (J.) . BESANT (W.) . . II 4 ADAMS (Sir F. O.) . . 28 BACON (Francis) . 19, 20 BETHUNE-BAKER (J. F.) 33- ADAMS (Herbert B.). . 28 BAINES (Rev. E.) . . 33 BETTANY (G. T.) . 6 ADDISON . . . 4, 20 BAKER (Sir S. W.) 28, 30, 37, 38 BICKERTON (T. H.) . 22 AGASSIZ (L.) ... 3 BALCH (Elizabeth) . . 12 BlGELOW(M. M.) . . 12 AINGER(RCV. A.) 4, 16, 20, 33 BALDWIN (Prof. J. M.) . 26 BlKELAS(D.) . !7 AINSLIE (A. D.). . . 14 BALFOUR (Rt. Hon. A. J.) 2s BiNNiE(Rev.W.) . . 33 AIRY (Sir G. B.) . 2, 27 BALFOUR (F. M.) . . 5, 6 BIRKS (T. R.) . 6, 25, 30, 33 AITKEN (Mary C.) . . 20 BALFOUR (J. B.) . .6 BlORNSON (B.) . 17 AITKEN (Sir W.) . . 23 BALL(V.). ... ^8 BLACK (W.) . 4 ALBEMARLE (Earl of) . 3 BALL (W. Platt) . . '6 BLACKBURNE (E.) . 3- ALDRICH (T. B.) . 14 BALL(W.W.R.) . . 22 BLACKIK (J. S.) . 9, 14, 19 ALEXANDER (C. F.) . . 20 BALLANCE (C. A.) . . 22 BLAKE (J. F.) . 2- ALEXANDER (T.) . . 8 BARKER (Lady) . 2, 8, 37 BLAKE (W.) . ALEXANDER (Bishop) . 33 BARNARD (C.) . . 27 BLAKISTON (J. R.) . ALLBUTT (T. C.) . . 22 BARNES (W.) ... 3 BLANFORD(H. F.) . 9 2 7 ALLEN (G.) ... 6 BARRY (Bishop). . . 33 BLANFORD (W. T.) . 9, 24 ALLINGHAM (W.) . * .20 BARTHOLOMEW (J. G.) . 3 BLOMFIELD (R.) 9- AMIEL(H. F.) ... 3 ANDERSON (A.). . . 14 BARTLETT (J.) ... 7 BARWELL (R.) . . .22 BLYTH (A. W.) . BOHM-BAWERK (Prof.) . ii . 28 ANDERSON (Dr. McCall) . 22 BASTABLE (Prof. C. F.) . 28 BOISSEVAIN (G. M.) . . 28 ANDREWS (Dr. Thomas) . 26 BASTIAN (H. C.) . 6, 22 BOLDREWOOD (Rolf ). ir APPLETON (T. G.) . . 37 BATESON (W.) ... 6 BONAR (J.) . 28 ARCHER-HIND (R.D.) . 36 BATH (Marquis of) . . 28 BOND (Rev. J.). 3 1 ARNOLD, M. 8,14,19,20,21,30 BATHER (Archdeacon) . 33 BOOLE (G.) . 26 ARNOLD (Dr. T.) . . 9 BAXTER (L.) ... 3 BOUGHTON (G. H.) . 37" ARNOLD (W. T.) . . 9 BEESLY (Mrs.) ... 9 BOUTMY (E.) . . 12 ASHLEY (W. J.). . . 3 BENHAM (Rev. W.) . 5, 20, 32 BOWEN(H.C). 25 ATKINSON (J. B.) . . 2 BENSON (Archbishop) 32, 33 BOWER (F. O.) . . 6 ATKINSON (Rev. J. C.) i, 38 BERLIOZ (H. . . 3 BRIDGES (J. A.). 19- INDEX. PAGE PAGE PAGE BRIGHT (H. A.). . . 9 CLARKE (C. B.). . 9, 28 DlLLWYN (E. A.) . . 17 BRIGHT (John) . . 28, 29 CLAUSIUS (R.) . . .27 DOBSON (A.) ... 4 BRIMLEY(G.) . . -19 CLIFFORD (Ed.) . . 3 DONALDSON (J.) . . 33 BRODIE (Sir B. C.) . .7 CLIFFORD (W. K.) . 19, 26 DONISTHORPE(W.) . . 29 BRODRIBB (W. J.) . 13,37 CLIFFORD (Mrs. W.K.) . 38 DOWDEN (E.) . . 4, J 3, X 5 BROOKE (Sir J.) .3 CLOUGH (A. H.) . 14, 19 DOYLE (Sir F. H.) . . 14 BROOKE (S. A.) 13, 14, 21, 33 COBDEN (R.) . . .29 DOYLE (LA.) . . . 10 BROOKS (Bishop) . . 33 COHEN (J. B.) . . .7 DRAKE (B.) . . 3 6 BROWN (A. C.) . . . 26 COLENSO G- W.) . . 32 DRUMMOND(Prof. J.) . 34 BROWN (J. A.) i BROWN (Dr. James) . . 4 BROWN (T. E. ) . . . 14 COLERIDGE (S. T.) . . 14 COLLIER (Hon. John) . 2 COLLINS (J. Churton) . 19 DRYDEN . . . .20 Du CANE (E. F.) . . 20, DuFF(Sir M.E.Grant) 20,29,37 BROWNE (J. H. B.) . . n BROWNE (Sir T.) . . 20 COLQUHOUN (F. S.) . . 14 COLVIN (Sidney) . 4, 20 DUNSMUIR (A.). . . 17 DUNTZER (H.) . . . 4, 5 BROWNE (W. R.) . . 27 COMBE (G.) ... 8 DUPRE(A.) ... 7 BRUNTON (Dr.T.Lauder) 22, 33 CONGREVE (Rev. J.) . . 33 DYER(L.). . . . i BRYCE (James) . . 9, 28, 37 CONWAY (Hugh) . . 17 EADIE (J.). . . 4, 3. 3" BUCHHEIM (C. A.) . . 20 COOK (E. T.) . . .2 EASTLAKE (Lady) . . 3 2 BUCKLAND (A.). . . 5 COOKE (C. Kinloch) . . 24 EBERS(G.) ... 17 BUCKLEY (A. B ) . .9 COOKE (J. P.) . . 7, 34 EDGEWORTH (Prof. F. Y.). 28. BUCKNILL (Dr. J.C.) . 22 CORBETT (J.) . . 4, 17, 38 EDMUNDS (Dr. W.) . . 22 BUCKTON (G. B.) . . 40 CORFIELD (W. H.) . . II EDWARDS-MOSS (Sir J. E.) 30 BUNYAN . . .4, 19, 20 CORRY (T. H.) . . .6 EIMER (G. H. T.) . . 6 BURGON(J.W.) . . I 4 COTTERILL(J.H.) . . 8 ELDERTON (W. A.) . .9 BURKE (E.) ... 28 COTTON (Bishop) . . 34 ELLERTON (Rev. J.) . . 34 BURN (R.). ... i COTTON (C.) . . .12 ELLIOT (Hon. A.) . . 29 BURNETT (F. Hodgson) . 17 COTTON (J. S.) . . . 29 ELLIS (T.). ... 2 BURNS . .14, 20 COUES (E.) ... 40 EMERSON (R. W.) . 4, 20 BURY(J. B.) ... 9 CouRi.iorE(W.J.) . . 4 EVANS (S.) ... 14 BUTCHER (Prof. S. H.) 13,19,36 COWELL(G.) . .23 EVERETT (J. D.) . . 26 BUTLER (A. J.). . . 37 COWPER . . . .20 FALCONER (Lanoe) . . 17 BUTLER (Rev. G.) . . 33 Cox(G. V.) ... 9 FARRAR (Archdeacon) 5, 30, 34 BUTLER (Samuel) . . 14 CRAiK(Mrs.)i4, 17, 19,20, 37, 38 FARRER(SirT. H.) . . 29 BUTLER ( W. Archer) . 33 CRAIK (H.) . . 8, 29 FAULKNER (F.). . . 7 BUTLER (Sir W. F.) . . 4, CRANE (Lucy) 2, 39 FAWCETT (Prof. H.) . 28, 29 BYRON . . . .20 CRANE (Walter) . 39 FAWCETT (M. G.) . 5, 28 CAIRNES (J. E.) . . 29 CRAVEN (Mrs. D.) . .8 FAY (Amy) . .24 CALDECOTT (R.) .12, 38, 39 CRAWFORD (F. M.) . . 17 FEARNLEY (W.) . . 27 CALDERWOOD (Prof. H.) CREIGHTON (Bishop M.) 4, 10 FEARON(D.R.) . . 8 8, 25, 26, 33 CRICHTON-BROWNE(SirJ.) 8 FERREL(W.) ... 27 CALVERT (Rev. A.) . . 31 CROSS (J. A.) ... 30 FERRERS (N. M.) . . 27 CAMERON (V. L.) . . 37 CROSSLEY(E.) ... 2 FESSENDEN (C.) . . 26 CAMPBELL (J. F.) . . 37 CROSSLEY (H.) . . .37 FINCK(H.T.) ... i CAMPBELL (Dr. J. M.) . 33 CAMPBELL (Prof. Lewis) 5, 13 CAPES (W.W.). . . 13 GUMMING (L.) . . . 26 CUNNINGHAM (C.) . . 28 CUNNINGHAM (Sir H. S.) . 17 FISHER (Rev. O.) . 26, 27 FISKE (J.). 6, 10, 25, 29, 34 FisoN(L.). ... i CARLES (W. R.) . . 37 CUNNINGHAM (Rev. J.) . 31 FITCH O-G.) ... 8 CARLYLE(T.) ... 3 CUNNINGHAM (Rev. W)3i, 33,34 FITZ GERALD (Caroline) . 14 CARMARTHEN (Lady) . 17 CARNARVON (Earl of) . 36 CUNYNGHAME (Sir A. T.) . 24 CURTEIS (Rev. G. H.) 32, 34 FITZGERALD (Edward) 14,20 FITZMAURICE (Lord E.) . 5 CARNOT (N. L. G.) . . 27 DAHN (F.) ... 17 FLEAY(F. G.) ... 13 CARPENTER (Bishop) . 33 DAKYNS (H. G.) . . 37 FLEISCHER (E.). . . 7 CARR (J. C.) . . .2 DALE (A. W. W.) . . 31 FLEMING (G.) . . .17 CARROLL (Lewis) . 26, 38 DALTON (Rev. J. N.) . 37 FLOWER (Prof. W. H.) . 39 CARTER (R. Brudenell) . 23 DANTE . . .3, 13, 37 FLUCKIGER(F.A.) . . 23 CASSEL (Dr. D.) . .9 DAVIES (Rev. J. LI.). 20, 31, 34 FORBES (A.) . . 4, 37 CAUTLEY(G. S.) . . 14 DAVIES (W.) . . . s FORBES (Prof. G.) . .3 CAZENOVE (J. G.) . . 33 DAWKINS (W. B.) . . i FORBES (Rev. G. H.) . 34 CHALMERS (J- B.) . .8 DAWSON (G. M.) . . 9 FOSTER (Prof. M.) . ' 6, 27 CHALMERS (M. D.) . . 29 CHAPMAN (Elizabeth R.) . 14 DAWSON (Sir J.W.) . . 9 DAWSON (J.) ... i FOTHERGILL (Dr. J. M.) 8,23 FOWLE (Rev. T. W.). 29, 34 CHASSERESSE (Diana) . 30 DAY(L.B.) ... 17 FOWLER (Rev. T.) . 4, 25 CHERRY (R. R.) . . ia DAY (R. E.) . . 26 FOWLER (W.W.) . . 24 CHEYNE (C. H. H.) . .2 DEFOE (D.) . . 4, 20 Fox (Dr. Wilson) . . 23 CHEYNE (T. K.) . . 30 DEIGHTON (K.). . . 15 FOXWELL (Prof. H. S) . 28 CHRISTIE (J.) . . .23 DELAMOTTE (P. H.). . 2 FRAMJI (D.) . .10 CHRISTIE (W. D.) . . 20 CHURCH (Prof. A. H.) . 6 DELL (E.G.) ... 12 DE MORGAN (M.) . . 39 FRANKLAND (P. F.) . . i FRASER (Bishop) . . 34 CHURCH (Rev. A. J.) 4,30,37 DEVERE(A-) ... 20 FRASER-TYTLER (C. C.) . 14 CHURCH (F.J.). . 20,37 DICEY (A. V.) . . 12, 29 FRAZER (J. G.) . . i CHURCH (Dean) 3,4,13,19,31,33 DICKENS (C.) . . 5, 17 FREDERICK (Mrs.) . . 8 CLARK (J. W.) . . . 20 DIGGLE (Rev. J. W.). . 34 FREEMAN (Prof. E. A.) CLARK (L.) ... 2 DILKE (Ashton W.) . . ia 2, 4, 10, 29, 32 CLARK (S.) ... 3 DILKE (Sir Charles W.) . 29 FRENCH (G. R.) . . 13 INDEX. PAGE PAGE PAGE FRIEDMANN (P.) . . 3 HARRISON (Miss J.) . . i JONES (F.). ... 7 FROST (A. B.) ... 38 HARTE (Bret) . . . 17 KANT . . . .25 FROUDE (J. A.). . . 4 FUI.LERTON (W. M.) . 37 HARTIG (Dr. R.) . . 6 HARTLEY (Prof. W. N.) . 7 KARI . . . .39 K.AVANAGH(Rt.Hn.A.M.) 4 FURNISS (Harry) . . 38 HARWOOD (G.) . .21, 29, 32 KAY(Rv.W.). . . 31 FURNIVALL (F. J.) .. . 14 HAYES (A.) . . .14 KEARY (Annie). 10, 18, 39 FYFFE (C. A.) . . . to HEADLAM(\V.). . . 36 KEARY (Eliza) ... 39 FYFE(H.H.) ... 9 HELPS (Sir A.) . . . 21 KEATS . . .4, 20, 21 GAIRDNER (J.) ... 4 HEMPEL (Dr. W.) . . 7 KELLNER (Dr. L.) . . 25 GALTON (F.) . . i, 27 HERODOTUS . . . 36 KELLOGG (Rev. S. H.) . 34 GAMGEE (Arthur) . . 27 HERRICK . . . .20 KEMPE(A. B.) . . . 26 GARDNER (Percy) . . i GARNETT(R.). . . 14 HERTEL(Dr-) ... 8 HILL (F. Davenport). . 29 KENNEDY (Prof. A. B. W.) 8 KENNEDY (B. H.) . . 36 GARNETT(W.). . . 5 HlLL(0.). ... 2 9 KEYNESQ.N.). . 26,28 GASKELL (Mrs.) . . 12 HIORNS(A. H.) . . 23 KlEPERT(H.) ... 9 GASKOIN (Mrs. H.) . . 30 HOBART (Lord) . .21 KlLLEN (W. D.) . . 32 GEDDES (W. D.) . 13, 37 HOBDAY (E.) ... 9 KINGSLEY (Charles) . 4, 8, 10, GEE (W. H.) . . 26, 27 GEIKIE (Sir A.). . 4, 9, 27 HODGSON (Rev. T. T.) . 4 HoFFDING(PrOt. H.) . 26 11,12,13,15,18,21,24,32,37,39 KINGSLEY (Henry) . 20, 38 GENNADIUS (J.) . . 17 HOFMANN(A.W.) . . 7 KIPLING (J. L.). . . 38 GiBBiNs(H.de B.) . . 10 HOLE (Rev. C.). . 7, 10 KIPLING (Rudyard) . . 18 GIBBON (Charles) . . 3 HOLIDAY (Henry) . . 38 KIRK PATRICK (Prof.) . 34 GILCHRIST (A.). . . 3 HOLLAND (T. E.) . 12,29 KLEIN (Dr. E.). . 6,23 GILES (P.). ... 25 HOLLWAY-CALTHROP(H-) 38 KNIGHT (W.) ... 14 GlLMAN(N. P.) . . 28 HOLMES (O. W.,junr.) . 12 KUENEN (Prof. A.) . . 30 GILMORE(RCV. J.) . . 13 HOMER ... 13, 36 KYNASTON (Rev. H.) 34, 37 GLADSTONE (Dr. J. H.) 7, 8 HOOKER (Sir J. D.) . 6, 37 LABBERTON (R. H.). . 3 GLADSTONE (W. E.). . 13 HOOLE(C. H.). . . 3 LAFARGUE (P.). . . 18 GLAISTER (E.) . . . 2, 8 HOOPER (G.) ... 4 LAMB. . . .4, 20, 21 GODFRAY (H.) ... 3 HOOPER (W.H.) . . 2 LANCIANI (Prof. R.). . 2 GODKIN(G. S.). . . 5 Hop E (F.J.) ... 9 LANDAUER (J.). . . 7 GOETHE . . . 4, 14 HOPKINS (E.) . . .14 LANDOR . . . 4, 20 GOLDSMITH 4, 12, 14, 20, 21 HOPPUS (M. A. M.) . . 18 LANE-POOLE (S.) . . 20 GOODALE (Prof. G. L.) . 6 HORACE ... 13, 20 LANFREY(P.) ... 5 GOODFELLOW (J.) . .11 HORT (Prof. F. J. A.). 30, 32 LANG (Andrew). 2, 12, 21, 36 GORDON (General C. G.) . 4 HORTON (Hon. S. D.) . 28 LANG (Prof. Arnold) . . 39 GORDON (Lady Duff) . 37 GoscHEN(Rt. Hon.G. J.)- 28 GOSSE (Edmund) . 4, 13 HOVENDEN (R. M.) . . 37 HOWELL (George) .. . 28 HOWES (G.B.). . . 40 LANGLEY (J. N.) . . 27 LANKESTER (Prof. Ray) 6, 21 LASLETT(T.) ... 6 Gow(J.) .... i HOWITT(A. W.) . . I LEAF (W.). . . 13, 36 GRAHAM (D.) . . .14 HOWSON (Very Rev. J. S.) 32 LEAHY (Sergeant) . . 30 GRAHAM (J.W.) . . 17 HOZIER (Col. H. M.). . 24 LEA(M.) . . . . 18 GRAND'HOMME (E.) . . 8 HUBNER (Baron) . . 37 LEE (S.) ... 20, 37 GRAY (Prof. Andrew) . 26 HUGHES (T.) 4, 15, 18, 20, 37 LEEPER (A.) . . -37 GRAY (Asa) ... 6 HULL(E.). . . . 2, 9 LEGGE (A. O.) . . 10, 34 GRAY ... 4, 14, 21 HULLAH (J.) . . 2, 20, 24 LEMON (Mark) . . .20 GREEN (J.R.) . 9,10,12,20 HUME(D.) ... 4 LESLIE (A.) . . .38 GREEN (Mrs. J. R.) . 4, 9, 10 HuMPHR\