place to farmers and hop-growers, where grimy
men used to tend the glowing metal and send it running into form and
mould.

I have mentioned before how there used to be a furnace by Sir
Hawkhurst's penstock pond, where the embankment was still firm, but
there had been a far more extensive one here, and the refuse went, as I
have said, to repair the dam.

When this was done, the Doctor had a long low shed built and thatched
and supplied with form-like seats, and a diving-board arranged, beside
steps down in the shallow part for the younger boys, and the whole when
finished made a glorious long pool of about an acre in extent, very deep
by the dam, and sloping gradually up to a few inches only of water where
the stream trickled in. And there, on the hot sunny afternoons,
beautifully shut in by green waving trees, and with the water when we
came to bathe so clear that you could see every stone on the gravelly
bottom, we boys used to collect for a regular water frolic. But, as you
may suppose, the water was not so clean when we had done, the paddling
of the little fellows in the shallows discolouring it from end to end.

That special hot June afternoon cricket had been voted too tiring, and
we had all gone down to the bathing-place, the non-swimmers having
strict injunctions not to pass a couple of posts about half-way between
the stream and the dam.

It was always Lomax's duty to come down with us at bathing times, and,
with his walking cane under his arm, he used to stride to and fro along
the bank, barking out orders to the lesser boys, who were constantly
breaking the rules, and getting toward the deeper water.

By that time I was a pretty fair swimmer, and had got over my natural
nervousness to the extent that I was ready to dive off the board into
the deepest part, and go anywhere with ease. Mercer was better than I,
and Hodson better still; Burr major, from being so long, bony, and thin,
was anything, as Mercer used to say, but eely in the water,--puffing and
working hard to keep himself afloat; while Dicksee, though naturally
able to swim easily from his plumpness, was, I think, the greatest
coward we had there.

The water was delightfully warm that afternoon, but it soon got to be
very thick, though that did not trouble us in the least, and we were in
the full tide of our enjoyment, swimming races, diving, and playing one
another tricks, while all the time, sharp and short from the bank,
Lomax's orders wou