DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 41 



some other plan, for you know it has been written of 

 woman, — 



She never slavishly submits; 



She'll have her will, or have her j&ts. 



How would it do for you to think you don't want 

 a motor-boat and to tell her that you are glad now 

 you took her advice?' 



He stayed his punting to reply, 'Well ! I'm blowed 

 if I didn't tell the missus, this ver\- morning, that if 

 I didn't want a motor-boat she'd be the first to say 

 to me : "When every waterside man who lets boats 

 has got a motor on the hire system, you'll be thinking 

 about buying one I suppose?" So she would, I say.' 



I fear I was in a teasing mood, and I replied, 'There 

 must be two sides to a question of to-be or not-to-be, 

 and we should not blame a woman for choosing to be 

 cautious. I think women much more far-seeing than 

 men. Now supposing anything were to happen to you, 

 and your widow married a man who, not ha\'ing 

 sixpence of his own, cared more for cash than motor- 

 boats. Just think how pleased he would be to have 

 the money ready to his hand to invest as he chose.' 



'Would he? WiU he? Weil, I'm blowed! I say, 

 Mr Geen, as \ridows shouldn't be allowed to make fools 

 of themselves, I say.' 



'You wouldn't, I suppose,' said I, 'care to go in 

 for the Indian plan of burning widows with their 

 husbands' bodies?' 



'Do they do that, Mr Geen? Well, I'm blowed! 

 But they do give the unmarried ones a chance, don't 

 they?' 



\Ve were not favoured with a sign from the Clewer 

 Point fish although we stayed to tempt him for fully 

 three hours, but X did not tire me, as some fisher- 

 men do, v/ith repeated assurances of its existence. It 

 is a pleasing trait of this man's character that what 

 he has said, he has said, and does not add to. 



