CH. VI.] ALL EIGHT AT LAST. 93 



self that whatever it might be, it was worth 

 catching, to get hold of the rod with my right 

 hand, than out spun the line, cutting into the 

 fingers of my left hand, through which I managed 

 to ease it, until I could bring the rod into play. 

 Then "whirr" went the reel, and the next instant, 

 at some thirty or forty yards from the boat a 

 Salmon of over twelve pounds flung himself and 

 again and again out of the water. I need not 

 continue the story. The rest of the business, 

 after he had "had his fling," and I had got him 

 under command, was simple enough; the result 

 being that in a quarter of an hour or so we were 

 "wetting 1 " him under a sheltering rock, while the 

 little dog, to whom I allude at greater length else- 

 where, was prosecuting his usual search after 

 field-mice. 



1 Let not the Angler at such a time be chary of the con- 

 tents of his flask or of his tobacco-pouch if his Gillies have 

 done their work well. His success in great measure depends 

 on their cheerful and active cooperation, and there is perhaps 

 no way more calculated to insure this than a slight largess 

 thus bestowed. 



But apart from any application of the principle that gra- 

 titude is " a lively sense of favours to come "there is some- 

 thing cheery in the "wee drappie all round," and the "better 

 luck still, Sir," which preludes the tossing off of each. Master 

 and men will work together all the better for it, and the 

 result will be all the worse for the Salmon. 



