DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



CHAPTER I 



" One clear idea, wakened in the breast, 

 By memory's magic lets in all the rest." 



Treats my Father paid for I get a Fright Sporting Parsons 

 I lose my Photographer 



ALTHOUGH I am old in years threescore and seven 

 I can walk the longest day and shoot as straight 

 as I ever could, thanks not so much perhaps to the 

 stiffening of my loins by birchings as to the reason 

 for their infliction. Stealing days has ever been 

 a joy to me and I often played truant from school. 

 I had no compunctions at the time and have 

 had no regrets as yet, for what I learned in the 

 fields and woods has been a source of life-long 

 pleasure. 



My upbringing was so full of the joys of outdoor 

 life that my delight has always been in the open 

 air and sunshine. School was to me a prison, and 

 its teachings nauseous drugs which I avoided with 

 all the cunning of my little brains ; yet I listened 

 by the hour, with wide-open eyes, to the ugliest 

 man boy ever saw while he taught me to be familiar 

 with living things. I have had kindly thoughts of 

 Pavey a thousand times as the picture of his giant 

 form and ugly face, redeemed by a kindly twinkling 



