XXV 



OF A WAR WITH BRAN-NEWCOME 



HERE follows the story of Bran-Newcome, 

 with whom, in a certain year of rain and wind, 

 I had to do. Read and you shall learn of our 

 little private war, how it began in the early days 

 of May, and how articles of peace were signed on 

 the twenty-eighth of June under the willows on 

 the bank that lies between the Running Ditch 

 and the Slow Water by the road to Great 

 Ottley. 



This was in the good old days when I used to 

 catch fishes out of Clere, the bad old days when 

 the angling had no competition, and I used to 

 come rushing down here by a leaden-footed ex- 

 press train each Friday night and go away on 

 Monday morning and fish perpetually in between, 

 the bad old days when there was no harp in the 

 valley only the fishes and me. 



You are to know that the Slow Water is not all 

 mine to fish. From half-way along it down to 

 the island the main stream is forbidden to me. At 



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