DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 15 



Nell had done all she could to appear as little like 

 a schoolgirl as was possible, and she was much helped 

 to look a real matron by what she had chosen to go 

 away in, particularly so by the prettiest straw bonnet, 

 with strings tied in a bow beneath the chin, that ever 

 a woman wore. I, having but the slightest downy 

 tint of hair upon my face, to pull at or to twist, except 

 my eyebrows, to which my fingers wandered, tried to 

 think of something else, a cough or trick of speech, 

 to show that I was older than I looked; but it was all 

 in vain, and we had to submit to the motherly treatment 

 of our kind hostess, who placed before us creams and 

 junkets, cakes and jams, in unlimited array, v/hile 

 the food for a m.an and woman was meagreness itself. 

 Still we came better through the ordeal than the 

 couple who took a valet with them, primed to be 

 careful of his speech that no one should know they 

 were on their honeymoon, for, at their first stopping- 

 place, the other guests took so much notice of their 

 doings that the valet was carpeted; but he most 

 stoutly and tnithfuity denied having let the secret 

 out : 'Bedad, yer honour,' said he, 'it's every one of 

 me that tould them you wouldn't be marrying for 

 another fortnight yet.' 

 There is a stream running by The Hunter's Inn ; — 



It winds through the meadows scarcely seen, 

 For o'er it the flowers and grasses lean, 

 And thus, half-hidden, it ripples along, 

 The whole way singing its summer song. 



It was full of trout, some of which gave me great 

 delight by enabhng me to show my skill to my little 

 lady and to provide another dish for breakfast. It 

 sounds too much to call it the Heddon River, but 

 *What's in a name?' For me it was the sweetest little 

 brook that ever flowed. It draws its rise from Chal- 

 lacombe Common, on the border of Exmoor, flows 

 through Kol worthy, quite a wee thing, and then on to 



