Joe started going to alton Grammar Sc till  meant a four-mile bike ride morning and evening, and Motraffic, ime included a very feor- cars.

    For several years  to t by old Mrs t. Most of t to save to t Mott er and eacy, sacles, and all s es. S manage t t ruant as often as t like it. Once tful scandal cause a boy put  understand at time. Mott succeeded in  up. icularly bad ell your fat e so see t s do it too often, and even  at you  it o dodge.

    Joe oug teen, and to cut  lumps bursting out of corduroy breecs and rat of t tolerated because tc in o fling  like a spread-eagle. tinction bet t usually pay muctention to it till t sixteen. t passing your finger and eating an eart to be frigainly to make a nuisance of tore tole fruit by t. Sometimes in er to borros and go ratting, apults and squailers, and to buy a saloon pistol, ed to more t to go fising.  Mrs t’s o cut sc least once a  t about once a fortnig tioneer’s son, er from your moterday. Of course I o join t Joe al any blasted kids hanging round.

    It  of going fis really appealed to me. At eig yet been fis , imes catcickleback. Moterrified of letting us go any everyt yet grasped t gro see round corners. But t of fis me ement. Many a time I’d been past t tcimes under tree at t diamond- s to my eyes looked enormous—six inco t  treet, o lie aales Joe old me about fise,  gives a bob and plunges under and you feel tugging at t any use talking about it, I  of fairy lig fisackle  guns and sing, some feel it about motor-bikes or aeroplanes or ’s not a t you can explain or rationalize, it’s merely magic. One morning—it  —I kne Joe o cut sc fiso follo, and arted on me while we were dressing.

    ‘No you get today. You stay back home.’

    ‘No, I didn’t. I didn’t t it.’

    ‘Yes, you did! You t you he gang.’

    ‘No, I didn’t!’

    ‘Yes, you did!’

    ‘No, I didn’t!’

    ‘Yes, you did! You stay back   any bloody kids along.’

    Joe  learned t. Fat  of Joe, but as usual  do so. After breakfast Joe started off on ces early as  to cut sc ime for me to leave for Mott’s I sneaked off and ments. I kneo t to follo. Probably t get o dinner, and t I’d cut sc anot I didn’t care. I  desperate to go fisoo. I alloy of time to make a circuit round and get to ted round to get almost to t tercups o my knees. t stirring tops of t green clouds of leaves  of soft and ric  years old, and all round me it  tangled ill in bloom, and bits of soft ing overance t give a damn for any of it. All I e. It  to join tly I managed to sneak up on think his name was.

    Joe turned and sao me like a tom-cat t’s going to start a fig’d I tell you? You get back ‘ome double quick.’

    Boto drop our aitc all excited. I backed away from him.

    ‘I’m not going back ‘ome.’

    ‘Yes you are.’

    ‘Clip   no kids along.’

    ‘ARE you going back ‘ome?’ said Joe.

    ‘No.’

    ‘Rig-hO!’

    tarted on me. t minute cer anot I didn’t run aly  me and got me do on my upper arms and began screorture and one I couldn’t stand. I ime, but still I  give in and promise to go ed to stay and go fisold Joe to get up off my c and let me stay if I ed to. So I stayed after all.

    ts and a lump of bread paste in a rag, and  ourselves cree at t t of sig t it made any difference to ering tle, but ed boys. till jealous of me and kept telling me to get out of t and reminding me t I  fis I   let me sit beside t me to anot of ter ten part of t o knoinct till, I . I ting on t fit to knock you doc on ter, and I ear- marks mixed up  ill all over my face.

    Lord knoretc and out, and t e. It ill day, too clear for fiss lay on ter o ter as to a kind of dark green glass. Out in t under times in t  t out of ter. But t biting. t sing t t a nibble, but it ime stretc and out and it got ter and ter, and te you alive, and t under t like Mot-sting  knoain  as still as a mouse and never took my eyes off t. t about telling me t  for a long time I didn’t even dare to re-bait my ime I pulled my line up to frighin five miles.

    I suppose   t

    passing accidentally and sa. taking t your float gives e. It’s quite different from t moves cally. t moment it gave a s  under. I couldn’t o thers:

    ‘I’ve got a bite!’

    ‘Rats!’ yelled Sid Lovegrove instantly.

    But t moment t any doubt about it. t dived straigill see it under ter, kind of dim red, and I felt tig, t feeling! training and a fis! t moment to me. I gave a terrific   all of us gave a yell of agony. to t under t o ser urn over, and for pero ter, splas ‘im!’  moment o t. ed! te flapped up and do , and must er of a pound. ed to see  t moment it anding over us, all billycock —one of ts to  op  and a boick in his hand.

    e suddenly coridges eet, and since cracker.

    ‘ are you boys doing here?’ he said.

    t muc about w we were doing. Nobody answered.

    ‘I’ll learn ‘ee come fis moment  in all directions.

    t all tiff and  move fast, but  in some good s of  er us t o tell our fat t of ty red  to the hedge.

    I spent t of t made up t, but for time being tolerated me. text or oto go back to t of us  for a long, meandering, scrounging kind of  of  boys go for   real boy’s  from to go ie Simmons. e coy cans and s of tcer   very strong, and ter made us belcery o Upper Binfield, t time I’d been t o ts of dead leaves and t smootrunks t soar up into t ts. You could go  preserve ts any longer, and at t you’d only meet a carter ree t runk looked like a target, and  it ones. ts at birds apults, and Sid Lovegrove sree. Joe said  foug doo a ced to ed a dirty y  me because I only kne  ts except t t of tarted to carve tree, but got fed up  after t tters. t round by t some no one ever dared go inside because old ed as a kind of caretaker, il  doo ton Road and cers, keeping on t t reacon Road t  overgro mounds of rusty old tin cans and bicycle frames and saucepans tles  nearly an  ourselves filto foot routing out iron fence posts, because  t for old iron. te t  in a blackberry buser a lot of argument about o do ook t, s at tones, and finally stamped on to stamp on. It ting on toea-time no old Breting too o stay out mucrailed ments  and c icks, and old Bennet tation-master,  every nig, came after us in a tearing rage because rampled on his onion- bed.

    I’d en miles and I  tired. All day I’d trailed after tried to do everyt I’d more or less kept my end up. I  kno unless you’ve —but if you’re a man you’ll  some time. I kne I  a kid any longer, I  last. And it’s a o be a boy, to go roaming co cs and kill birds and sones and cers and s dirty ’s a kind of strong, rank feeling, a feeling of kno’s all bound up e dusty roads, t sy feeling of one’s clot, ty ink of taste of fizzy lemonade and t made one belcamping on training on t  of it. t feeling.

    Sure enoug round and told everybody. Fatcrap out of to ‘t of’ Joe. But Joe struggled and yelled and kicked, and in t get in more t  a caning from ter of t day. I tried to struggle too, but I  me across -for rap. So I’d  day, one from Joe, one from old Bre day t I  really a member yet and t I’d got to go t out of tories) after all. trict in insisting t you o bite t. Moreover, because I  and to catc after t  really a big one. In a general endency of fisalk about to get bigger and bigger, but t smaller and smaller, until to alk you’d  it han a minnow.

    But it didn’t matter. I’d been fis dive under ter and felt tugging at told t take t away from me.