250 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



but little to make things move in merry fashion. 

 To see him row was a revelation, and his manage- 

 ment of the boat when under sail was astounding. 

 He would at tim.es fairly fling himself to get a hold of 

 the rope next the pulley that was up and out from 

 him until ail that was left of Tony in the boat was 

 his legs below the knees. Several times when thus 

 extended a freshening puff fairly stretched him, and, 

 fearing he would go, I held his trousers legs until he 

 was on board again. He is a fisher, one of the best 

 I ever fished with. It seemed that his experience left 

 nothing unknown to him in this direction. Even our 

 fine hues brought no expression of surprise, but merely 

 a look of pleased recognition as of one who had long 

 since knov/n their merits and was glad to see some- 

 thing old-fashioned reappear. 'A white worm on one 

 av thim, plaise' carried conviction by its tone, and 

 what resulted proved there was wisdom in his choice. 

 He knew, too, the depths to which our lines would 

 sink, and asked for their raising and their dropping 

 as the fishing ground demanded. I might have left 

 my chart at home, nor did I need to make much call 

 upon my o\\ti experience as, when with Tony, I was 

 learning. His famihar knowledge of the haunts and 

 habits of the fish prom.pted me to remember and to 

 tell him of his sainted namesake, and how he, in the 

 intervals of the devil's harassing temptations, went 

 to the sea to give to the fishes the sermons to which the 

 heathen would not listen, and so influenced them that 

 they moved, and even bowed, at his bidding. 'Thin 

 it's a powerful pracher he was, and the saints thim- 

 selves best know how he came to be named afther 

 me. Ach the praching !' 



He said this so sorrowfully that I was compelled 

 to fear that he had been made to Hsten to preaching 

 in his youth when he would have preferred to have 

 been elsewhere. I had some sympathy for this, as 

 it caused me to remember the lengthy sermons I in 



