The morning was a bright frosty one with a clear blue sky. The long drive through varied scenery from the Dales to Somerset was a sheer pleasure and John, the Probation Officer,

drank in the glorious scenery. He was going to visit Sam, whom he had now known for over three years, Sam's longest period of continuous liberty since his childhood days. Sam, if only he had more verbal ability, could be a veritable mine of information on the Prisons of England and Wales. He was now nearing 60 years of age and had not lost those rather piggy eyes or the snub nosed countenance.

While being helpfully supervised by John, Sam had seriously damaged his foot while doing some casual unpaid garden work. It had been arranged for Sam to spend some months, while convalescing, at a Retreat Centre operated by an open Order of Brothers at The Haven in Somerset. John arrived in excellent time and was warmly welcomed by the Brothers who told him that, after a difficult start, Sam now seemed fairly settled. In the early days it seemed that Sam had to find fault with anything, everything and everybody. It had been quite a severe test for many of the Brothers but they had grown in the process. The rather humourless senior Brother had pointed out to them that the Bible says, 'Tribulation worketh patience' and that they should thank the Lord for the lessons that He was teaching them! Fortunately, for Sam the rest of the Brothers were endowed with lively senses of humour!

The Brothers had had a large measure of peace once Sam had been fit enough to work with the animals. Here Sam had shown endless patience and seemed to be able to communicate with a variety of different animals as though he had been brought up with them all his life. Sam seemed to have no fear. Despite having been warned of the antics of a dangerous bull Sam had calmly walked up to the bull when it was in a frisky state. The bull had stood still, staring at Sam as though ready to lower his head and charge. Sam had just grunted and continued his slow walk up to the bull. He had then rubbed its forehead as though they had been friends for years! Brother Bob, the farm manager, had been amazed and asked Sam how he did it. Sam had responded, "I could feel that it was frightened of me and I felt so sorry for it that I wanted to help it in some way. The only thing I could think of was to rub its forehead. That's all."

John was now directed to the farm where he found Sam sitting on the ground amongst the hens and their droppings. They scarcely seemed aware of Sam's presence but suddenly became excited as John approached. Sam got to his feet, "Hello Guv. Can I still call you Guv, as the screws here don't seem to like me using that word? I can't get used to calling them Brother this and Brother that."

John shook him warmly by the hand and together they went to a nearby bench where they sat down. At first, Sam did not answer any of John's questions and so they sat in silence. John found the silence very disturbing; after all he had come all this way just to talk to Sam. After some five minutes John relaxed into the silent environment and then enjoyed the ensuing twenty minutes of silence broken only by the noise of the hens. John was reminded of that saying from South America, 'From the Tree of Silence hangs the Fruit of Tranquillity'.

Sam eventually spoke, saying, "It's alright here Guv, it took some getting used to though." John didn't rush him but in time learned that Sam saw it as 'different to all the other nicks' he had ever been in. The cells were not so well furnished here, no telly and all that. What he had found so very different was that not once had anyone shouted at him. He admitted that early on he had been extra difficult just to see whether he could make them shout. It would have made him feel so much more at home, like all the other nicks he had been in. "Guv, they're so different, almost like friends. As yer know, I like working hard but I like doing nuffing too. Here, they don't seem to mind that at all. I like talking to these 'ere 'ens. It's not easy cos they keep 'terrupting but I'm making progress. That one over there 'as not been laying eggs and I told 'er she been idle too long. She 'eard. Now she's back laying again. It's a good life here, yer know Guv. You should give it a try. Still Guv, you'll have to excuse me, I've got work to do. We can't all be idle layabouts. It's time I went to feed the pigs. Can't let them poor chaps go 'ungry."

John realised that Sam had done quite enough talking, to people at any rate, and that it was time he went back to the Brothers and had a chat before departing for the long journey homeward. The journey had, after all, been worthwhile. John felt that he had benefited from his time with Sam.

James Dowd.