76 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



trust to your hands to carry all you may find, you 

 will, perhaps, be the " observed of all observers," as I 

 was, carrying a large Cuttle-fish in each hand, while 

 some compassionate sailors superfluously assured me, 

 " Them's not good to eat, sir !" Another day I trans- 

 ported a Dogfish through the streets — much to the 

 horror of all the flounces, and the ineffable scorn of all 

 the pink shirts and telescopes. You may be as indif- 

 ferent to the stares and the scorns of flounces and 

 telescopes as I was, but still I say, out of mere conve- 

 nience, carry a phial, if not a basket. On one memor- 

 able afternoon we came upon, and almost stepped upon, 

 an adder lying just outside the hedge. All is grist to 

 the anatomist's mill, so I cut off* the adder's head, and 

 wrapped it in my pocket-handkerchief Presently we 

 came to a pleasant pond, the surface of which, with its 

 varied greenth of scum, was so full of promise that 

 there burst from me a sudden Oh I which startled, and 

 not a little puzzled, a lazy countryman, taking his 

 siesta by looking at nothing over a gate. 



" Here's a pond ! " I exclaimed, when reason got the 

 better of emotion. 



" Ah ! " responded my companion, profoundly sym- 

 pathetic. 



The countryman was bewildered. Were we insane ? 

 or only Cockneys? There was a pond, sure enough, 

 and as dirty a bit o' water as you'd wish to see ; and 

 what then? Were we frogs from the desert, that a 

 pond should agitate us ? 



While he was cracking this very hard nut, harder 



