EXPERIENCES WITH "BOB' 61 



began to bark, and the men to shout and whistle 

 excitedly, soon after five o'clock in the morning. 

 There was an early rattle and clatter of milk-pails 

 in the lower part of the house, and the cows were 

 being turned out, lowing for joy, into the now fresh 

 green fields. When the window blinds were drawn 

 up I could always see that the village wives had 

 been astir before me. Every chimney appeared to 

 be giving out that beautifully coloured smoke of 

 the breakfast fire which burns more wood than coal. 

 Sometimes it was going straight up into a clear sky, 

 showing evanescent blue-grey columns against the 

 background of the trees. At other times it would 

 seem to be lingering about in the branches, as if 

 reluctant to quit the quiet homesteads. When the 

 wind blew from the fells, just catching the tops of 

 the houses in this deep sheltered nook of West-Moor 

 or West-Mere land, one could see the smoke being 

 wafted away over the old church tower, and then 

 caught again and again in the varying currents of 

 valley air to be blown here, there, and everywhere. 

 These were infallible signs that it would not be 

 until one got quite away from the hamlet that one 

 would be able to tell whether it was blowing up the 

 river or down, or whether the night mist, lying low 

 on Wild Boar Fell, was staying there or creeping 

 to its top. 



