]40 EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



a short time, to give a few good things to such 

 men as good Shippy. 



Now, as I said before, Shippy's duties were 

 not of so decidedly overpowering a nature as 

 to prevent my occasionally inveigling him into 

 taking a rod in his hand. Indeed, sometimes 

 I smuggled him out of Stornoway, to come 

 and stay with me, and take a walk over the 

 muir and see my dogs work ; and then I 

 wanted to try a gun I had not shot out of 

 some time, and it was taken out by chance, 

 and Shippy came in for a shot. The gulls, 

 too, used to plague his garden, and someone 

 lent him a short, thick single-barrel, that could 

 shoot. But Shippy's passion was fishing, and 

 this I had both the power and the will of 

 gratifying ; for, much as I dislike loafers, more 

 do I like seeing a friend enjoy himself by my 

 rivers' side. He was the most extraordinary 

 fisher I ever saw. He did not fish a river — he 

 thrashed it; and there was not much use 

 fishing after him. His lines were cables; his 

 rods something like the good springy twenty 

 feet ash poles we used to jump the fen ditches 

 with in days of yore, when there were fens, 

 and before your improving agriculturists drained 

 them — for which may the unclean beast defile 

 their graves ! With these he worked his flies 



