strictly preserved, and the fishing was good. My father could
generally get leave for me, and more delightful days than those
spent at Kempston Mill and Oakley Mill cannot be imagined. The
morning generally began, if I may be excused the bull, on the
evening before, when we walked about four miles to bait a celebrated
roach and bream hole. After I got home, and just as I was going to
bed, I tied a long string round one toe, and threw the other end of
the string out of window, so that it reached the ground, having
bargained with a boy to pull this end, not too violently, at
daybreak, about three-quarters of an hour before the time when the
fish would begin to bite well. At noon we slept for a couple of
hours on the bank. In the evening we had two hours more sport, and
then marched back to town. Once, in order to make a short cut, we
determined to swim the river, which, at the point where we were, was
about sixty feet wide, deep, and what was of more consequence,
bordered with weeds. We stripped, tied our clothes on the top of
our heads and our boots to one end of our fishing lines, carrying
the other end with us. When we got across we pulled our boots
through mud and water after us. Alas! to our grief we found we
could not get them on, and we were obliged to walk without them.
Swimming we had been taught by an old sailor, who gave lessons to
the school, and at last I could pick up an egg from the bottom of
the overfall, a depth of about ten feet. I have also been upset
from my boat, and had to lie stark naked on the grass in the sun
till my clothes were dry. Twice I have been nearly drowned, once
when I wandered away from the swimming class, and once when I could
swim well. This later peril is worth a word or two, and I may as
well say them now. I was staying by the sea-side, and noticed as I
was lying on the beach about a couple of hundred yards from the
shore a small vessel at anchor. I thought I should like to swim