Brambles and thorns and other underwood had begun to cover the space that should have been open, and young sapling oaks had risen from dropped acorns.  Felix pointed this out to Oliver, who seldom accompanied him; he was indeed rather glad of the opportunity to do so, as Oliver had more interest with Sir Constans than himself.  Oliver admitted it showed great negligence, but added that after all it really did not matter.  “What I wish,” said he, “is that Sir Constans would go to Court, and take his proper position.”

Upon this they were well agreed; it was, in fact, almost the only point upon which all three brothers did agree.  They sometimes talked about it till they separated in a furious temper, not with each other but with him.  There was a distinct track of footsteps through the narrow band of low brambles and underwood between the stockade and the forest.  This had been made by Felix in his daily visits to his canoe.

The forest there consisted principally of hawthorn-trees and thorn thickets, with some scattered oaks and ashes; the timber was sparse, but the fern was now fast rising up so thick, that in the height of summer it would be difficult to walk through it.  The tips of the fronds unrolling were now not up to the knee; then the brake would reach to the shoulder.  The path wound round the thickets (the blackthorn being quite impenetrable except with the axe) and came again to the river some four or five hundred yards from the stockade.  The stream, which ran from west to east through the enclosure, here turned and went due south.

On the bank Felix had found a fine black poplar, the largest and straightest and best grown of that sort for some distance round, and this he had selected for his canoe.  Stones broke the current here into eddies, below which there were deep holes and gullies where alders hung over, and an ever-rustling aspen spread the shadow of its boughs across the water.  The light-coloured mud, formed of disintegrated chalk, on the farther and shallower side was only partly hidden by flags and sedges, which like a richer and more alluvial earth.  Nor did the bushes grow very densely on this soil over the chalk, so that there was more room for casting the fly than is usually the case where a stream runs through a forest.  Oliver, after getting his tackle in order, at once began to cast, while Felix, hanging his doublet on an oft-used branch, and leaning his spear against a tree, took his chisels and gouge from the flag basket.

He had chosen the black poplar for the canoe because it was the lightest wood, and would float best.  To fell so large a tree had been a great labour, for the axes were of poor quality, cut badly, and often required sharpening.  He could easily have ordered half-a-dozen men to throw the tree, and they would have obeyed immediately; but then the individuality and interest of the work would have been lost.  Unless he did it himself its importance and value to him would have been diminished.  It had now been down some weeks, had been hewn into outward shape, and the larger part of the interior slowly dug away with chisel and gouge.