Roaehing. 109 



exactly to the right consistence, and you are more apt to make it 

 too soft than too stiff. And now for the pearl barley ; that also is 

 just right, each corn swelled out to the largest size it can attain, and 

 not boiled a bit beyond that, or it gets too soft ; an hour and a 

 half is about the time. Put that into a jam pot and pour some warm 

 water in to keep it moist; and now "cr-r-r-r — cuckoo one, cuckoo two," 

 and so on to ten goes that ridiculous clock. 



" Well, Jork, and how's Congo ?" This is a lapsus lingucB, and 

 should have been Congou, for Jork is a Mincing-laner, and has dealings 

 with the Celestial Empire, out of which he contrives a comfortable 

 competence. 



" Right, my boy ; first chop. I left young Hyson (his partner 

 Hewitson, Hyson for short) in charge; there's nothing doing, so I stole 

 a day. How's the river ?" 



"All right an hour ago — just the right height and colour, and no 

 wind;" we don't like wind, it spoils sport. So we shoulder our two 

 rods, which I have had all ready and waiting. The gardener carries the 

 ground bait, beer, and heavy luggage, and we process through the 

 garden and field down to the well-known corner under the big pollard. 

 The grass is emerald-green, the birds are singing, the sun shines, and 

 you'd think it was May— that is, the May of the poets, the May of 

 reality having of late years been rather a chalk worse than the 

 Novembers of Tom Hood. 



"Fine, oh, fine!" says Jork, catching a glimpse of the river. 

 "Couldn't be better." I say nothing, but I look proud and pleased 

 with my little stream, which eddies so prettily and softly along under 

 the grey old tree stumps which hang over and watch themselves in the long 

 pool. The pool is about fifty or sixty yards long, and for a considerable 

 part of its course runs between six and seven feet in depth ; beside and 

 above us is a fine old upright pollard, which in the summer makes grateful 

 shade over the stream. Opposite to us is another pollard stump, that 

 overhangs the stream, under which the greatest depth is. It is my bathing 

 hole in the summer, and I share my cooler with the water rats and moorhens. 

 The opposite bank for several yards being hollow, and running into 



