136 A YEAR OF LIBERTY ; OR, 



Log-a-Thrummain turns a deaf ear to our entreaties the Angler's 

 Throw sees us wade in vain in the Sod Ditch two or three heavy 

 fish are rising to please themselves, but refuse to gratify us 

 Allingham's Point is as quiet as if it had never held a salmon. We 

 are weary, the river is dull, and everything seems flat and unprofit- 

 able. Shall we return and join the Colonel, who is thrashing away 

 below, or first try the Grass Yard ? Pat thinks our friends have 

 shut up for the evening, Willie rather inclines to the same belief. 

 In my heart I feel they are right ; but, being by nature obstinate, 

 cannot confess it. Eegularly done, we scrambled along the rough 

 and rocky way, crawled up the bank, and so gained the yard. For 

 once in his life my poor companion took the rod reluctantly, and. 

 waded, I fear unwillingly, into the strong stream, to a point that 

 gave him full command of this splendid lodge. Never had he 

 operated so execrably. I should have been sorry to swear he was 

 not fishing in his sleep. " There, that will do ; come along. It is 

 no use." Thirty or forty yards higher up the evening breeze faintly 

 ruffled the flat, near a low ledge ^fantastically carved by the winter 

 floods) where occasionally we had succeeded. " Give me the rod, 

 I'll take a throw there before we go." My tired comrade listlessly 

 went through the ceremony of presentation, and I delivered the 

 kind of cast a man is apt to make, when faint and hopeless. From 

 sheer laziness the fly was played close to the rock, where a spanking 

 salmon sailed quietly up and took it. I saw the fair deceiver 

 disappear within his jaws, opened like two white arms to receive 

 her, and, completely surprised, forgot courtesy my great obligations 

 all the proprieties in short and struck him rudely and furiously. 

 A loud crack announced that the full penalty of violated laws had 

 overtaken me, for the ill-used rod had snapped short off about six 

 feet from the point. It fell, however, into hands which could be 

 relied on in any emergency. The butt and wheel came necessarily 

 into my department, and by keeping the broken parts as nearly as 

 possible in one line we managed " the runs " very satisfactorily. 

 Once before, a similar accident bef el us, on which occasion we passed 

 through the trying ordeal with credit. The water was stiU and 



