Sheila Burnford Quote for the Day

From The Fields of Noon, by Sheila Burnford, 1964.  Ms. Burnford reminisces about the outdoor habits of her Scottish childhood. 

...and then, of course, the day-in-, day-outers of the children, the gumbooted habitués, who twirled, dangled or dragged their walking sticks, and it mattered not what kind, as long as it had a curved handle.

We could not possibly walk without a curved handle to our sticks.  It was invaluable for hooking round the necks of recalcitrant dogs, pulling down branches, rattling along the palings of St. Bride's, prodding; one could practise golf strokes, or use it as an ice hockey stick when the river froze.  One could, one supposed, brandish it menacingly should a menacing situation arise--or thrust it through an enemy's bicycle spokes.  Once...I hurled it like a boomerang at a stoat intent upon a nerveless rabbit--but being me, of course, I hit the rabbit and knocked it out cold.  Fortunately the stoat was so amazed at this performance that I was able to pick the rabbit up before it recovered.