NOTES FROM A DIARY 147 



by contrast with these noisy times. 

 Surely even then I must have been 

 grateful for that day's benison, for there 

 were no motor-lorries along my road, and 

 overhead only one kestrel poised motion- 

 less against the blue. It was JNIonsieur 

 Boniface who had suggested the expedi- 

 tion. At an early hour we discussed it 

 over our morning coffee, and with the 

 assistance of various spoons and forks and 

 the pepper-pot my route was demonstrated 

 and explained. Monsieur Boniface travels 

 in butter and optimism. He assured me 

 that the river was not more than five 

 short kilometres distant. He pointed 

 again and again to the pepper-pot, which 

 represented an ash wood, through which I 

 must pass, and at each reiteration the 

 pepper-pot slid perceptibly nearer us 

 across the smooth oilcloth-covered table. 



Only two short kilometres from the 

 village was this ash copse, and once there 

 I must be sure to leave the road and bear 

 sharp to the right. Spoons and forks 

 conducted me plainly through the wood- 

 paths ; lumps of sugar, like cromlechs^ 

 marked my way across the landes, even 



