46 A LAWSUIT AND A COMPBOMI8E. 



" ' Oh ! ho !' he exclaimed with a chuckle, ' you're the 

 chap I was consulted about down near the mouth of the 

 Rackett the other day, by a country trout, who was on a 

 journey to visit his relatives in the streams of Canada. He 

 showed me a hole in his jaw, made by your hook at the 

 mouth of the Bog river. I've filed a summons and com- 

 plaint against you for assault and battery, and beg to notify 

 you of the fact.' 



" ' I plead the general issue,' said I. 



" ' There's no such thing known to the code/ he replied. 



" ' I deny the fact, then,' I exclaimed. 



" ' That won't do,' he rejoined ; " the complaint is put in 

 under oath, and you must answer by affidavit, of the truth 

 of your denial.' 



" You see my dilemma. I remembered the circumstance of 

 hooking a noble trout at the place alleged, and as the affair 

 has been settled, I'll tell you how it was. At the head of 

 Tupper's Lake, one of the most beautiful sheets of water 

 that the sun ever shone upon, lying alone among the moun- 

 tains, surrounded by old primeval forests, walled in by 

 palisadoes of rocks, and studded with islands, the Bog 

 River enters ; this river* comes down from the hills away 

 back in the wilderness, sometimes rushing with a roar over 

 rocks and through gorges, sometimes plunging down preci- 

 pices, and sometimes moving with a deep and sluggish cur- 

 rent across a broad sweep of table land. For several miles 

 back of the lake, and until a few rods of the shore, it is a 

 calm, deep river. It then 'rushes down a steep, shelving 



