Mij Two Days Salmon Fisldng. 39 



lieve, is forty shillings for every one found in your posses- 

 sion. I got over my kind landlady's scruples, and per- 

 suaded her to let me have them fried in batter, and in the 

 middle of dinner in walked my Irish friend. '•' Have 

 some Kentish smelts," I said to him ; " came this morning 

 by post ; sit down and join me." 



He winked, and sat down. " Holy Moses ! " he ex- 

 claimed j " they are salmon -parr ; you are in for two pounds 

 apiece." 



" And you are in for it too, my boy, for you have eaten 

 three already." 



" Ah ! well, let us put them all out of sight, then. Give 

 me two or three more, for they are food for the Pope 

 himself." 



The next day I left my salmon haunts, and went back 

 with much content to what trout fishing I came across. It 

 is childish to sa.y that a man who had once caught a salmon 

 -would never care for anything else. In my rambles I came 

 across an Irish fair in a picturesque village on the sea- 

 shore. 



" I shall give a halfpenny to the best boy," I said to a 

 group of bare-footed, shock-headed, bright-eyed little Irish 

 urchins w^ho w^ere standing in a ring round '' the English 

 Gintleman," who was sitting on the stump of an old tree 

 outside '' Pat Murphy's Grocery and Entertainment," in 

 the little Irish village, where he was the only stranger in 

 the place. I was that stranger. " I am the best boy, sir," 

 yelled the little crowd, in chorus, and each sang his own 

 virtues lustily. " But stop, my little men," I continued ; 

 " I am going to give a penny to the worst boy." The 

 chorus turned round and proclaimed the wickedness of 

 their neighbours. " That boy helped beat his uncle when 

 they got him down at the fail-," said one. " That boy was 

 sent to Mass with twopence for the priest's dues, and only 



