1 86 BROADLAND SPORT 



fowl that pass overhead within shot ; or crouching, for what 

 poor shelter a marsh gateway can give against a howling 

 blast, waiting and waiting with a certain knowledge that he 

 will be successful in obtaining shots, because Molly has 

 stationed him and she knows the flight of the fowl. 



He sees himself threading treacherous rotten swamps, 

 steering from point to point, and at every point being 

 successful in gaining a shot at snipe, all under Molly's 

 direction. 



He sees himself again in her company, gathering plovers 

 and redshanks' eggs, which she can find with ease, but at 

 which he is comparatively blind. She it is who can tell by 

 the flight of the birds not only where the nest is situated, but 

 also the number of eggs it contains, and whether they are 

 fresh or sat upon. 



He sees himself gathering mushrooms upon the marshes in 

 quantities, more than enough to satisfy his wants, whilst his 

 guide, philosopher and friend is hard by. 



In his early sporting days this Amazon princess of the 

 marshes was a friend worth knowing ; there Molly, a modern 

 Trilby, domineered as the Svengali of his existence. 



He sees himself later, after years have passed over his head, 

 revisiting the old haunts, as summer comes round, and taking 

 it easy in his own lackadaisical kind of way ; and as he 

 welcomes the marshman's daughter he does so as an old friend, 

 and feels that it is but yesterday that he exchanged confidences 

 in the osier-bed, although Fate has ordained that his path in 

 life shall lie in a diverse direction to hers. 



Half awake and half asleep, he hears the lap of the wave- 

 lets against the freeboard of the wherry, and lulled by the 

 soothing sound he dreams on and sees Molly, now in all the 

 glory of womanhood, beloved as of yore by all who know her, 

 and looked up to with the deepest affection by a younger 

 generation of brothers and sisters, who worship the very 

 ground she walks upon. And well they may, for who but 

 Molly, his sporting little Molly of days gone by, could tend 

 them with such care and see to their creature comforts in the 



