XII 

 AT THE INN 



HOTEL is the fashionable word. 1 intend 

 nothing derogatory by here resorting 

 to the old term, but I think the word 

 " inn " conveys at once something more 

 of the warmth and the good fellowship associated 

 with gatherings of- fishermen. It used to be my 

 business as a reporter to be present at assemblies 

 of all sorts and conditions of men, and even now 

 across the span of years I remember the jovial 

 company of coursers when the card was drawn, 

 and how the expectation of the morrow's sport 

 put every one in good humour. Cricket and 

 football reunions, when battles are fought over 

 again, have their attraction. In fact, every con- 

 course of healthy, wholesome sportsmen, whatever 

 be their particular form of sport, commands re- 

 spect. The war made soldiers of thousands and 

 thousands of these men. They had already 

 learned team work it was instinctively part of 

 them and discipline of a sterner nature came to 

 them as no hard lesson. 



Other gatherings have their sponsors but to 

 me most human and friendly is a little group of 



