DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 45 



CHAPTER V 



woman's successful plotting — A PROSPEROUS 



far:\i and its happy occupants — i steal away 



IN TPIE GRAY DAWN AND GET A FISH FOR BREAK- 

 FAST. 



Country folk cannot stand the noise, dust, and 

 smells, to say nothing of the worries, of a city, without 

 hungering now and then to tread the meadow grass 

 and sniff the scents that come from it. That wife of 

 mine had much conceit of her knowledge of every 

 symptom that foretold my coming need of country air; 

 a word pitched too high and she favoured me with 

 a look much like my mother's when she \4ewed a pro- 

 truding tongue and prescribed salts and senna. The 

 v/ife's prescription for this out-of -sorts aided and 

 abetted me in filching da^^s from duty. Indeed I had 

 to go, for, when her persuasion failed — it seldom did — 

 she would plead fatigue, and become so pale, in the 

 briefest time, that for her sake we stole off together. 



There can be no doubt that whatever portion of 

 my economy it may be that gives way to fag, the 

 remedy for it is with every tree and bush that breathes 

 pure air, for I am no sooner v/ith them than I feel myself 

 on the u-pgrade. I was very queer, so Nell said, and 

 those of my fellow-men I had to meet were very tiresome 

 and nothing less than all their own way would do for 

 them. Every one and everything was growing daily 

 grayer when a letter came from a Thames-side farm- 

 house, with an invitation for us both, which said, 

 'The country here is at its best, and George saj^s there 

 are trout in the weir-pool v/aiting to be caught. Wire 

 the time of train and he will be at Farringdon to meet 

 you.' 



