To put a new worm on the hook without coming to destruction, he first twisted his legs about a young birch, and put his arms round it.

He was after a big one, he informed Corp, though he might as well have been fishing in a treatise on the art of angling.
Corp exchanged pleasantries with him; told him that Tommy was Captain Ure, and that he was his faithful servant Alexander Bett, both of Edinburgh.

Since the birth of his child, Corp had become something of a humourist.

Tommy was not listening.

As he lolled in the sun he was turning, without his knowledge, into one of the other Tommies.