AN ANGLER'S PARADISE 103 



An enterprising guest would occasionally pick a 

 bowlful of gooseberries, with which the garden was 

 overburdened, and suggest a gooseberry tart, a most 

 welcome variation upon the inevitable omelette en- 

 folding raspberry jam in its embrace ; — a sweet 

 omelette is an excellent thing in its way, no doubt, 

 but apt to pall after a certain number of times. 



At one period a flock of geese might be heard 

 cackling around the house, and it is on record that 

 a certain visitor had the hardihood to impress upon 

 the cook the desirability of slaughtering one of these 

 birds ; it would, he remarked, make such a pleasant 

 change in diet from the eternal mutton. True, it was 

 a change I but such an innovation was never again 

 suggested ; for the mutton was at any rate good of 

 its kind, and tender, whereas nothing less powerful 

 than a hatchet could have divided the joints of that 

 goose with any measure of success. 



The most strenuous carvers of the party were 

 turned on to it in rotation, but, beyond perspiration 

 and unholy language, without result. But then it 

 was the old gander that had been sacrificed — it 

 was a pity to kill a young and innocent bird I For 

 several days it made its reappearance, first warmed 

 up, then cold, until the Doctor — that burly old 



