Many locks encumber the descending levels of the Stratford-on-Avon Canal, and they kept Sam busy.  In the intervals the boat glided deeper and deeper into a green pastoral country, parcelled out with hedgerows and lines of elms, behind which here and there lay a village half hidden—­a grey tower and a few red-tiled roofs visible between the trees.  Cattle dotted the near pastures, till away behind the trees—­for summer had passed into late September—­the children heard now and again the guns of partridge shooters cracking from fields of stubble.  But no human folk frequented the banks of the canal, which wound its way past scented meadows edged with willow-herb, late meadow-sweet, yellow tansy and purple loosestrife, this last showing a blood-red stalk as its bloom died away.  Out beyond, green arrowheads floated on the water; the Success to Commerce ploughed through beds of them, and they rose from under her keel and spread themselves again in her wake.  Very little traffic passed over these waters.  In all the way to Preston Bagot our travellers met but three boats.  One, at Lowsonford Lock, had a pair of donkeys ("animals” Sam called them) to haul it; the other two, they met, coming up light by Fiwood Green.  “Hold in!” “Hold out!” called the steersmen as the boats met.  Sam held wide, and by shouts instructed Mr. Mortimer how to cross the towropes; and Mr. Mortimer put on an extremely knowledgeable air, but obeyed him with so signal a clumsiness that the bargees desired to know where the Success to Commerce had shipped her new mate.

The question, though put with good humour, appeared to disturb Sam, who for the rest of the way steered in silence.  There are three locks at Preston Bagot, and at the first Mr. Mortimer took occasion to apologise for his performance, adding that practice made perfect.

“I wonder, now,” said Sam delicately, “if you could practise leavin’ off that fur collar?  A little unhandiness’ll pass off, an’ no account taken; but with a furred overcoat ‘tis different, an’ I ought to a-mentioned it before.  We don’t want the children tracked, do we?  An’ unfort’nitly you’re not one to pass in a crowd.”

“You pay me a compliment,” Mr. Mortimer answered.  “Speaking, however, as man to man, let me say that I would gladly waive whatever show my overcoat may contribute to the—­er—­total effect to which you refer.  But”—­here he unbuttoned the front of his garment—­“I leave it to you to judge if, without it, I shall attract less attention. Laudatur, my dear Smiles, et alget.  Paupertas, dura paupertas—­I might, perhaps, satisfy the curious gazer by producing the—­er—­pawntickets for the missing articles.  But it would hardly—­eh, I put it to you?”

“No, it wouldn’,” decided Sam.  “But it’s unfort’nit all the same, an’ in more ways’n one.  You see, there’s a nasty ’abit folks ’ave in these parts.  Anywheres between Warwick an’ Birming’am a native can’t ’ardly pass a canal-boat without wantin’ to arsk, ‘’Oo stole the rabbit-skin?’ I don’t know why they arsk it; but when it ’appens, you’ve got to fight the man—­or elst I must.”