24 A MEDLEY OF SPORT 



beacons for over ten year, and I don't want that I should. 



N Island be good enough for the ode man and me and 



the young 'uns, and as long as we can keep the pot a-biling 

 and get our bit o' baccy " (my charming hostess weighed 

 nearly twenty stone and smoked like a chimney) " what 

 more do us want ? Drat your fal-de-ral towns. I goed 

 hinter Norwich once with me ode fayther when I wor a 

 nipper no bigger nor young Sarey " (i.e. Sarah) " there, 

 and worn't I wholly wonderful glad to get back to the 

 mashes again. Them " (pointing to some highly 

 coloured scriptural prints hanging on the kitchen wall) 

 " be some gays I brought back with me, but what they 

 means I never could make out," etc. 



As before stated, I had spent three weeks amongst the 

 fowl, which literally swarmed in the fleets and dykes of 

 the island, and such exceptional sport had I enjoyed that 

 I had become almost surfeited with the killing of mallard, 

 widgeon, teal and pochard, single-handed, and was busily 

 engaged packing my kit-bag that I might make an early 

 start for London and civilisation the next day, when 

 suddenly Billy, one of the bailiff's younger sons, burst into 

 my room hugging a beautiful hen -pike of about nine- 

 pound weight. 



" Where on earth did you get that fish from ? " I 

 cried, somewhat excitedly, perhaps, for I had not the 

 remotest idea that there were any fish to be caught in 

 the island beyond eels and small Prussian carp, which 

 I knew were to be found in some of the dykes and 

 fleets. 



