Stuart steered the conversation into safer waters. ‘If I could give you three wishes, Bertie,’ he said, ‘what would they be?’

Bertie thought. ‘For lots of chocolate,’ he said. ‘Lots of chocolate – enough for me and all my friends for at least ten years.’

‘Very nice,’ said Stuart. ‘And the second wish?’

‘For Olive to go and live in Glasgow,’ said Bertie. ‘And, if I can have this as part of the second wish, for Tofu to stop spitting at people and telling fibs.’

‘I see,’ said Stuart. ‘And the third?’

‘To be seven,’ said Bertie quietly.

Stuart said nothing for a few moments. Then he broke the silence. ‘Seven, Bertie? But you will be seven in due course. You don’t have to waste a wish on things that are going to happen anyway.’

‘But I want it to happen now,’ said Bertie. ‘If I wait, it seems that I’ll never be seven. It always seems a very long way away.’

Stuart reflected on this. ‘It can’t be long now,’ he said. ‘You’ll be seven in November.’

‘But that’s ages away,’ said Bertie. ‘I want to be seven now, Daddy. That’s why I wished for it.’

Stuart tried another tack. ‘Do you think things will be different when you’re seven?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ said Bertie. ‘People will treat me with …’

‘Yes, Bertie?’

‘With more respect,’ said Bertie in a rush. ‘They won’t push me around quite so much.’

‘Are you pushed around at the moment, Bertie?’

Bertie did not hesitate. ‘Yes,’ he said.

‘By …’ Stuart was about to say ‘By whom?’, but he stopped himself in time. ‘Oh well, Bertie. Seven will come along, sure enough. Let’s carry on fishing. You never know your luck. And the fish don’t know that you’re only six.’

They pushed the boat back out and started fishing again. Stuart caught a trout this time and immediately handed the rod to Bertie. ‘You land it, Bertie. This can be your fish.’

Bertie began to reel in, but the line soon slackened off and he gave the rod back to his father. ‘Got away,’ he said. ‘Again.’

At five o’clock, Stuart decided that it was time to stop. He rowed the boat back to the point from which they had set off. Then, once the boat was safely secured, they set off back towards the car park at Flotterstone.

‘I think I know a short cut,’ said Stuart, pointing to a path that led off to their right. ‘Let’s go this way, Bertie.’

They branched off, Stuart taking the lead as they followed the rough path that made its way sharply down a bank. At the bottom the path traversed a burn by means of a small wooden footbridge. They used this to cross, and then followed the path as it turned this way and that through a thicket of gnarled Scots pines.

‘Are you sure about this path?’ asked Bertie.