THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



127 



and his frantic bound out of the brown water. 

 Once again he lies in dreamy contentment by the 

 side of a lilied pool, and watches his float slide 

 away with the bite of a carp, or duck briskly with 

 the dash of a perch. 



And his helpmate, if she be spirit of his spirit, 

 as well as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, 

 will rejoice to see the wrinkles on his forehead 

 grow smoother, the lines about his mouth relax 

 from their sternness, and quiver with the play 

 of a smile ; and as his eyes close she will know 

 that he has fallen asleep on a mossy bank in a 

 woodland glade, and that the murmur of family 

 talk is to him the pleasant sound of a rippling 

 stream by which he has been wandering, and the 

 glare of the gas is transformed into the flicker 

 of the sunshine through the fluttering oak leaves, 

 or the glitter and reflex from the intermingling 

 wavelets. 



She is glad to see this, and she is not jealous 

 of his love that to him is second nature for 

 the angler's life and the angler's joys. She knows, 

 too, cunning woman, that when he wakes from 

 that refreshing dream and fancy, he will be 

 amiably disposed to grant her her heart's desire, 

 whether it be a new bonnet, or to take the children 

 to the pantomime. Those for whom we chiefly 

 write will know this is no fancy picture, and they 

 will know also that such reveries are refreshing 

 alike to the mind and the body 



