DIES PISCATORI^ 681 



habitations. my soul, come not thou into their secret ; unto 

 their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united !" 



There is the sawyer's dog ; if he comes much nearer I'll 

 psychologize him with one of these " dunnicks" ! But he turns 

 tail as soon as I stoop to pick one up. Now for it — -just at 

 the end of the swift water — ah ! my beauty — fifteen inches, 

 by all that is lovely ! He threw his whole length out of water 

 — try it again — I can't raise him. This won't do. Am I 

 cold, or am I nervous, that I should shake like a palsied old 

 man because I missed that fish ? Fie on you, Mr. Nestor, you 

 who have run the rapids at the "Rough Waters" on the 

 Nipissiguit, in a birch canoe, with a Salmon at the end of 

 sixty yards of line, and your pipe in your mouth; I thought 

 you had gotten past a weakness of this kind. But it will 

 only make bad worse, and convince that Trout of the cheat 

 to throw over him again ; so I must leave him now, and get 

 back to the log on that sunny bank and compose myself with 

 a few whiffs, while I change my flies. It will be just fifteen 

 minutes until I knock the ashes out of my pipe ; by that time 

 my vaulting friend will likely forget the counterfeit I tried to 

 impose on him, if I offer him something else. 



Now Dick gave me this for a meershaum, and I have no 

 doubt Mr. Doll sold it for one in good faith ; but it is a very 

 " pale complected" pipe for one of that family. I have smoked 

 it steadily for a year, and there is only the slightest possible 

 tinge of orange about the root of the stem. It is hardly as 

 dark as this ginger hackle in my hat-band. However, it is 

 light, and carries a big charge for a pipe of its size, and the 

 shortness of the stem brings the smoke so comfortably under 

 the nose — a great desideratum in the open air. The pipe 

 must have been instituted expressly for the fisherman ; it is 

 company when he is lonesome, and never talks when he wants 

 to be quiet ; it concentrates his ideas and assists his judgment 



