62 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



been told I do not look near that age, and that no one 

 would imagine that I was the mother of six children/ 



Another time of silence followed and another change 

 of mood. 



Our lunch was a happy one, and it was a sweet 

 cigar, so the wife said, that I smoked v/hile she talked 

 and added to her crochet work. Amongst other 

 things, she told me that I was looking better, getting 

 quite a colour, and then, in quite a different voice : 

 'Why, Phil, you have gray hairs. That's worry and 

 long hours in horrible, smoky London. I wish we had 

 been farmers. What will be the use of money when 

 health is gone ? ' 



I did not answer, for my early rising, with its excite- 

 ment, the murmurs of the weir, my comfortable 

 position, and the wife's soothing voice, caused me to 

 slip av/ay in sleep. How long I slept or how great 

 the burden of my head had grown the selfish man 

 would probably never have asked, but, fortunately for 

 love's long-suffering, the sleep was broken by, 'Hallo 

 there ! Hallo, you hshers ! We have brought some 

 tea and cakes. Hallo ! where are the fish ? ' 



Our host and hostess as they stepped from the 

 wagonette were in no way an unusual couple to look 

 upon, for they had paired as is the custom, the longest 

 with the shortest. The deity supposed to be respon- 

 sible for this should be pleased with the result as the 

 love of the six feet three of m.an for the five feet one 

 of v/oman was great, while his fair-haired, sweet- 

 tempered, little wife loved every inch of her slim giant 

 with only this reservation — apparently she loved his 

 tallest inches most, for her eyes dwelt oftenest upon 

 his curly head. 



Our host's question was answered by my wife's 

 beckoning finger and by her Xome this way and I will 

 show you.' The new arrivals followed, and the tall 

 one had to bend acutely somewhere about the middle 

 of his height to reach a stout cord which he was told 



