THE " DEVIL-ON-THEEE-STICKS." 29 



at a certain point at one end of the meadow, 

 where you might see a pair of high mud boots 

 standing, or rather soaking, with a man in them, 

 peering through a telescope on three legs, as if he 

 was watching for the total eclipse of a small boy 

 that is to be seen gradually sinking about fifty 

 yards off, and clutching in his agony a high staff by 

 his side, figured as if for high and low water-mark. 



Presently the Boots and the Telescope, after vari- 

 ous ineffectual efforts and hearings, succeed in 

 striking their quarters ; the boy, after sundry spas- 

 modic struggles, to correspond, achieves the same 

 exploit ; and the same scene as before occurs again 

 some fifty yards further on, and again, and again, 

 at the same intervals, until they reach the other 

 end of the meadow, and come plump upon the 

 banks of a marshy Pool some six acres in extent. 

 On attaining this point, the telescope is suddenly 

 shut up with a triumphant snap ; its three legs 

 jump into one ; the dripping, shivering boy receives 

 a tremendous, involuntary thwack on the back, and 

 A FALL OF NINE FEET is declared, like a "Dividend 

 of ten per cent, and a Balance over to go on with ! " 



Oh you primeval Carp, Pike, and Eels ! You little 

 thought, on that day, how deadly a fishing-rod, 

 marked and measured inch by inch-, threw its 



