DOVE DALE REVISITED 23 



alarmed when he saw that the donkey had dis- 

 appeared. 



He said that somehow he had lost his way 

 and couldn't get down nohow. I said, "You 

 young scamp, you've been nutting." This he 

 stoutly denied, but as I heard him cracking nuts 

 all the evening afterwards I was obliged to doubt 

 the truth of his assertion. Daisy turned up soon 

 with a bag full of nuts, and as the donkey couldn't 

 get through the iron gate, and was not fool 

 enough to try to get over it, nor yet to swim 

 across the river, he was soon captured. Bobby 

 and Daisy and donkey started for home, and 

 reached it without further disaster. 



Monday, October 6th. Bad as all the days 

 have hitherto been (except yesterday, being 

 Sunday, which was fine), this Monday was the 

 worst of all. It began to rain early and it rained 

 steadily all day, a cold, drifting drizzle. I fished 

 all day in it and my labours were not rewarded. 

 I may say, however, that I reached home at five 

 o'clock, outwardly dripping with wet but in- 

 wardly as dry as a dry fly. I wore my india- 

 rubber knee boots, and I was covered over by 

 that really most valuable and useful article of 

 apparel, " Burberry's Patent Slip-On." It is as 



