154 A YEAR OF LIBERTY ; Ofi, 



the wrong-headed party is sure to take the other side of some post, 

 boulder, or islet, and so Piscator comes to grief. With Scylla on 

 the right and Charybdis on the left, we endeavoured to steer a 

 middle course ; but the ship was not well under command, was 

 running at an awful rate, and, moreover, there were rocks ahead. In 

 plain language, we were all three tearing along as hard as we could. 

 Ml*. Grilse led, seemingly as fresh as ever. Eod followed next, 

 puffing and blowing ; and Gaf brought up the rear, blown. But the 

 worst remains to be told. There was a stiff fence in the way which 

 must be dealt with in the next half minute, unless the fish turned. 

 To get anything more out of "Willie was impossible, as he was doing 

 his best ; so, putting on a desperate spurt in order to recover as 

 much of the line as was possible, I dashed at the bank ; was too 

 done to reach the crest, came heavily with my chest against the top, 

 and rolled over into the ditch on the other side. Staggering to my 

 feet, sky, earth, and river whirled before my eyes ; whilst a doleful 

 voice seemed singing in my ears, "My fut is jammed in a root, 

 not a toe can I stir ; sorra take him for a salmon ; we'll be run out 

 and broke entirely; oh! worra-worra." Instinctively I stretched 

 out my hand for the butt, and once more took up the running. 

 Fortunately, the pace grew less severe, and in the next pool the 

 fugitive came to a halt. The speed had told, and the tackle, light 

 as it was, now became fuUy equal to the strength of the exhausted 

 fish. With one shoe on and the other left in the furze, my trusty 

 comrade limped up. 



" The toes is off me, and my fut's all in a jelly," as he slipped the 

 steel under the grilse ; " but this pays for all. Will I ever find the 

 shoe ? " 



In the act of falling, the rod had been jerked out of my hand, but 

 luckily dropped on a bush, where it lay with the wheel, clear, but 

 revolving at a fearful rate, till Willie came up and once more set 

 things right. In his hurry to cross, one foot had for the moment 

 become firmly wedged, when fortunately I, in turn, came to the rescue 

 in the nick of time. The poor feUow must have tugged desperately 

 to wrench himself out of the trap, as we found a portion of the 



