A holiday, and alone! On foot, of course, for he must travel light.

He would buckle on a pack after the approved fashion.
He had the very thing in a drawer upstairs, which he had bought some years ago at a sale.

That and a waterproof and a stick, and his outfit was complete.

A book, too, and, as he lit his first pipe, he considered what it should be.

Poetry, clearly, for it was the Spring, and besides poetry could be got in pleasantly small bulk.