THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



187 



meaning when we compare them with the things 

 they are meant to describe. The sky is blue, the 

 woods are green, the earth is fair is all that he 

 can say ; and although in each new scene, and each 

 time the old is viewed, there is a newness and 

 freshness which were never felt before, yet only 

 the same old words can be used, and the full heart 

 which pants for utterance, that it may show its 

 appreciation and gratitude for all this loveliness, 

 is baffled and beaten back by the weakness of 

 words. 



We came unexpectedly upon the rest of the 

 party. The three ladies had perched themselves, 

 like fairies in a pantomime, in the crevices of a 

 heavily-foliaged crag ; and there, among the long, 

 creeping plants and ferns, they comfortably nestled 

 at various altitudes, watching the efforts of Viator, 

 who stood on a sloping rock in the river beneath 

 them. He had cut himself a long hazel rod, and 

 had rigged up a line from the materials we had left 

 in our baskets, which were in his charge. Pro- 

 curing some worms by turning over the stones, he 

 had set himself to angle for eels in a sullen-looking 

 pool. His shoes and stockings were off, and the 

 bulging out of his coat pockets told where they 

 were. He stood up to his ankles in the water, in 

 a very insecure position, on the slippery, sloping 

 rock ; and, upon Herbert thoughtlessly giving a 

 shout to startle him, his feet flew from under him, 

 and he sat down in the water and commenced 



