ON LAKES, POOLS, ETC' 145 



stands knee-deep another fisherman, fishing for his 

 evening meal too ; and clever as you may be at your 

 craft, friend piscator, Goodman Gossip Heron shall 

 show you a trick or two of fishing which you cannot 

 equal. How spectral and like a ghost he looks as 

 he stands upon the watch ! Ah ! now you have dis- 

 turbed him ; he is off, and he flaps lazily away, like 

 an over-gorged monster as he is, dropping his last 

 capture as he goes home to Mrs. Heron and all the 

 young Herons, who are anxiously awaiting his coming 

 far up the face of that rugged and inaccessible rock 

 that overhangs Loch Lonely. And now the moon 

 begins to rise. The Lodge is two miles off across the 

 brae ; so fill thy pipe, and, with a light heart and a 

 heavy creel, betake thee gladly and peacefully home- 

 ward, thanking God for his beautiful world and thine 

 own happy lot in it : for certes, good friend, we 

 cannot choose but envy you that fine basket of trout, 

 that capital evening's sport, and that delicious home- 

 ward walk. 



I am writing, as the reader will see, con amore, 

 and I must beg him to pardon this rhapsody as an 

 unlooked-for digression ; for it is hard to be always 

 commercially-minded on such subjects, nor ever to 

 look at the more congenial part of the picture. 



But to resume my argument. These middle-sized 



L 



