His sole attire consisted of a striped blazer and a pair of
knickerbockers. He was crowned in a battered wide-awake hat, and from
this to the tips of his brown toes he looked buoyant and cool despite
the tan on his chest and legs.
He deposited the rest of his garments and a towel upon the grass, and
sprawled contentedly beside them.
"It was so jolly hot that I didn't bother about dressing," he observed,
lazily.
Then he sat up quickly.
"I say; you don't mind, do you? it's awful slack of me to come round
here like this."
"Not a bit," said I, as my thoughts fled back to the days when I also
was lean and springy, and blissfully contemptuous of changes in the
weather.
Ah, well-a-day--well-a-day!
Linger the dreams of the golden days--
They were bright, though they fled so soon,
Rosy they gleamed in the early rays
Of the sun, that dispelled them at noon.
The joys of reminiscence are mellow, but at times they may become a
little soporific--I awoke with a start.
"Whoo--ee."
It was a whistle, low and penetrating, and would seem to have risen from
the wood beyond the stream.