STRANGE BED-FELLOWS 



innings before very long, and had the fun all to himself 

 at that. He was fishing on the river bank, sitting 

 among some nettles. A very small fish got hooked, 

 and before taking it off he allowed it to stay in the 

 water and watched it as it tried to get away. But 

 other sharp eyes were watching, too. A kingfishe^ 

 had been flying about, catching a fish now and then. 

 It spied the fish that was hooked and became so in- 

 terested that it forgot Ned. What should it do, before 

 deciding to pounce on the fish, but alight on the fish- 

 pole which Ned was holding, out near the end. Ned 

 was so surprised that he almost dropped the pole, but, 

 recovering his presence of mind, hung on and enjoyed 

 the strange proceeding. The bird looked big and felt 

 very heavy, so much so that after about a minute, 

 which seemed like quite a long time, Ned could not 

 help dropping the pole a little, and the eager fisher, 

 which was about to dive after the fish, became alarmed 

 and flew away. I showed Ned a stuffed kingfisher, 

 but he says that his kingfisher was larger and hand- 

 somer, better in every way. 



86 



