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the copy used was very old, and the pages very browned, while at the same time not very well printed. But we have done our best and at least what we offer here is better than what you would have got from the book itself in its aged condition. As so often with this kind of book it makes a very good audio-book, and listening to it is a great pleasure.
______________________________________________________________________HOLLOWDELL GRANGE, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
CHAPTER ONE.
A FISH OUT OF WATER.
It was such a fine hot Midsummer day at Hollowdell station, that the porter had grown tired of teasing the truck-driver's dog, and fallen fast asleep--an example which the dog had tried to follow, but could not, because there was only one shady spot within the station-gates, and that had been taken possession of by the porter; so the poor dog had tried first one place, and then another, but they were all so hot and stifling, and the flies kept buzzing about him so teasingly, that he grew quite cross, and barked and snapped so at the tiresome insects, that at last he woke Jem Barnes, the porter, who got up, stretched himself, yawned very rudely and loudly, and then, looking in at the station-clock, he saw that the 2:30 train from London was nearly due, so he made up his mind not to go to sleep again until it had passed.
It was a hot day--so hot that the great black tarpaulins over the goods-waggons were quite soft, and came off all black upon Jem Barnes's hands. The air down the road seemed to quiver and dance over the white chalky dust; while all the leaves upon the trees, and the grass in the meadows, drooped beneath the heat of the sun. As to the river, it shone like a band of silver as it wound in and out, and here and there; and when you looked you could see the reflection of the great dragon-flies as they flitted and raced about over the glassy surface. The reeds on the bank were quite motionl