-by-four bits would be ample."

"I don't know nothin' about that," said Cloke.

"An' I've nothin' to say against larch--IF you want to make a temp'ry
job of it. I ain't 'ere to tell you what isn't so, sir; an' you can't
say I ever come creepin' up on you, or tryin' to lead you further in
than you set out--"

A year ago George would have danced with impatience. Now he scraped a
little mud off his old gaiters with his spud, and waited.

"All I say is that you can put up larch and make a temp'ry job of it;
and by the time the young master's married it'll have to be done again.
Now, I've brought down a couple of as sweet six-by-eight oak timbers
as we've ever drawed. You put 'em in an' it's off your mind or good an'
all. T'other way--I don't say it ain't right, I'm only just sayin' what
I think--but t'other way, he'll no sooner be married than we'll lave it
all to do again. You've no call to regard my words, but you can't get
out of that."

"No," said George after a pause; "I've been realising that for some
time. Make it oak then; we can't get out of it."

THE RECALL

I am the land of their fathers,
In me the virtue stays;
I will bring back my children,
After certain days.
Under their feet in the grasses
My clinging magic runs.
They shall return as strangers,
They shall remain as sons.
Over their heads in the branches
Of their new-bought, ancient trees,
I weave an incantation,
And draw them to my knees.
Scent of smoke in the evening,
Smell of rain in the night,
The hours, the days and the seasons
Order their souls aright;
Till I make plain the meaning
Of all my thousand years
Till I fill their hearts with knowledge,
While I fill their eyes with tears.

GARM--A HOSTAGE

One night, a very long time ago, I drove to an Indian military
cantonment called Mian Mir to see amateur theatricals. At the back of
the Infantry barracks a soldier, his cap over one eye, rushed in front
of the horses and shouted that he was a dangerous highway robber. As a
matter of fact, he was a friend of mine, so I told him to go home before
any one caught him; but he fell under the pole, and I heard voices of a
military guard in search of some one.

The driv