10 A yUae of liberty; OB, 



they pitying some gay young reprobate as yet unconscious of tlie 



retribution that waits on naughty birds ? or are they, as Longfellow 



sings 



Talking about the farmer's crops V 



At present I am not very well up in their language, but rather 

 incline to the latter hypothesis. 



But I must listen no longer, for we have dined already, and are 

 going to pay a last visit to the river. In the little garden, Willie 

 and Ned Eay, with rod and gaff, are chatting and smoking so come 

 with us ; there is time to try Ex Hole and the Island before dusk. 

 On with the boots, Willie, and do your best, whilst we light a 

 post-prandial cigar and look on. 



A light whistle announced good news. Man and rod might have 

 foimed a study the one so erect, easy, and confident, the other so 

 faultless in its perfect arch. We have scarce time to admire before 

 we have cause to deplore, for the baffled angler is even now gather- 

 ing up some sixty yards of slack line, taken in that fatal runthe 

 first and the last. 



The Island yet remains. Twice it has been carefully tned without 

 a rise. Our third and last chance shall be with the orange gi'ouse. 

 Has the fly, or the witching hour, produced the change ? A clean 

 eleven*pounder has just been landed, and once more, about thirty 

 yards below the rod, stands my honest servant on the watch that no 

 salmon may turn at the fly unnoticed. 



Simultaneously with his signal came a long drag on the line ; 

 swiftly and steadily the rod rose into position, and in thirty minutes 

 the vanquished lay on the bank, not dead but done up. He proved 

 a splendid ascending male, about 2 Gib., with a shoulder like a bull, 

 and a hook as thick as a walking-stick; Tenderly we returned him 

 to the water, and with very mixed feelings wttched him sail slowly 

 away. "What a fine ould ancient gladiator," sighed Ned. ''Oh, 

 master, what a kipper he'd have made," groaned Willie. 



It is an awful thing to be called on to show one's accounts. The 

 books of our firm reveal a terrible deficit. Well, if we must, we 

 must. Clean fish, 5 ; ascending dittos 6 



