joS 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



her boast" to her delighted grandpapa and grarid- 

 niamma. All at the table are jolly and merry and 

 happy, save one, the only one we have not yet 

 mentioned. He ia the miller's youngest brother, 

 but to look at him he seems much older than the 

 miller. He was an artist, whose pictures were 

 beginning to sell. Then he met with a love dis- 

 appointment, which upset his unstable nature. He 

 went utterly and irredeemably to the bad ; and now, 

 half imbecile, and wearily waiting for the end, he 

 has accepted the shelter of his brother's home. 

 Miserable as he is, however, his artistic perceptions 

 have not altogether left him ; and now he looks 

 more animated and happy, because he has been 

 sitting in the shadow-flecked orchard, between the 

 masses of white and sunlit blossoms, and has been 

 watching the play and dance of the water as it 

 oweeps over the weir ; the thrush singing in the 

 ;vpple tree, the lark in the blue sky, and the gay- 

 coloured chaffinch building its licheued nest in a 

 fork of the splendidly blooming cherry tree. The 

 gladness of the spring has permeated even him, 

 and to-day his presence is less like a cloud in the 

 sunshine of their home happiness. 



Country people themselves seem to wake to a 

 new life and cheeriness with the spring, and their 

 cheeriness is infectious. We pity the man who has 

 no friends in the country whom he may visit, and 

 from whom experience such a hearty welcome that 

 it makes him better pleased with himself. He 



