crumbs of our provisions.

There was nobody but ourselves in the field. When we had lain on the
bank for some time without speaking I saw a man approaching from the far
end of the field. I watched him lazily as I chewed one of those green
stems on which girls tell fortunes. He came along by the bank slowly. He
walked with one hand upon his hip and in the other hand he held a stick
with which he tapped the turf lightly. He was shabbily dressed in a suit
of greenish-black and wore what we used to call a jerry hat with a high
crown. He seemed to be fairly old for his moustache was ashen-grey. When
he passed at our feet he glanced up at us quickly and then continued his
way. We followed him with our eyes and saw that when he had gone on for
perhaps fifty paces he turned about and began to retrace his steps. He
walked towards us very slowly, always tapping the ground with his stick,
so slowly that I thought he was looking for something in the grass.

He stopped when he came level with us and bade us goodday. We answered
him and he sat down beside us on the slope slowly and with great care.
He began to talk of the weather, saying that it would be a very hot
summer and adding that the seasons had changed gready since he was a
boy--a long time ago. He said that the happiest time of one's life was
undoubtedly one's schoolboy days and that he would give anything to be
young again. While he expressed these sentiments which bored us a little
we kept silent. Then he began to talk of school and of books. He asked
us whether we had read the poetry of Thomas Moore or the works of Sir
Walter Scott and Lord Lytton. I pretended that I had read every book he
mentioned so that in the end he said:

"Ah, I can see you are a bookworm like myself. Now," he added, pointing
to Mahony who was regarding us with open eyes, "he is different; he goes
in for games."

He said he had all Sir Walter Scott's works and all Lord Lytton's works
at home and never tired of reading them. "Of course," he said, "there
were some of Lord Lytton's works which boys couldn't read." Mahony asked
why couldn't boys read them--a question which agitated and pained me
because I was afraid the man would think I was as stupid as Mahony. The
man, however, only smiled. I saw that he had great gaps in his mouth
between his yellow teeth. Then he asked us which of us had the most
sweethearts. Mahony mentioned lightly that he had three totties. The man
asked me how many I had. I