204 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



is a cunning old stager, and will not poke its head 

 into a hole. The otter gives it up at last, and 

 seeing an unwary chub rising at a moth, he seizes 

 it, and carries it to a rock, where, after taking a 

 bite from its shoulder, he leaves it as he left the 

 eel. The otter longs for trout, and trout he will 

 have, and he knows where to get them. 



A good-sized burn runs into the river from out a 

 craggy, wild, and wooded dene, where it leaps over 

 a score of waterfalls, and eddies into a hundred 

 pools. Up this the otter takes his way, pushing 

 through bramble and brier, and splashing over 

 stream and shallow in a very businesslike way. 

 He comes to where the burn, fast sweeping over 

 a slanting rock, spreads out into a clear, deep 

 pool. The otter gazes into the pool with eyes 

 that in the dark glare luminously, and sees a 

 large trout poising itself midway in the clear 

 water. With an almost noiseless plunge the beast 

 dives into the pool, and, quick as thought, the 

 fish pops under a stone. The otter kicks the 

 stone away with his paw, snaps up poor trouty, 

 and in a few minutes has eaten a considerable 

 portion of it. So up the brook he goes " the 

 dainty old thief of an otter " capturing a fish 

 here and there, eating some, and leaving others 

 with barely a bite taken out of the shoulder. 

 The moon rises large and red over the hill, and 

 sends bright sheets of light between the oak trees. 

 The robber growls at the bright-faced moon, for 



