Meldon was even more energetic than usual on the morning after the boating picnic.

By getting up very early indeed he was able to shoot four rabbits, members of a large family which lived by destroying Major Kent's lettuces.

He also bagged two wood-pigeons which had flown all the way from the Ballymoy House trees for the purpose of gorging themselves on half-ripe gooseberries in the Major's garden.

He then rowed out in the boat about a mile from the shore, and had the satisfaction of bathing in absolute solitude and diving as far as he could into deep water.

He had, as was natural, a fine appetite for breakfast, and ate in a way which gratified Major Kent and afterwards startled his housekeeper.