The night express for the south was not due till near midnight, and to fill up the time I went up on the hillside and fell asleep, for the walk had tired me.

I all but slept too long, and had to run to the station and catch the train with two minutes to spare.

The feel of the hard third-class cushions and the smell of stale tobacco cheered me up wonderfully.

At any rate, I felt now that I was getting to grips with my job.
I was decanted at Crewe in the small hours and had to wait till six to get a train for Birmingham.

In the afternoon I got to Reading, and changed into a local train which journeyed into the deeps of Berkshire.
Presently I was in a land of lush water-meadows and slow reedy streams.
About eight o'clock in the evening, a weary and travel-stained being--a cross between a farm-labourer and a vet--with a checked black-and-white plaid over his arm (for I did not dare to wear it south of the Border), descended at the little station of Artinswell.