74 AN ANGLER'S BASKET. 



lastly, he stands the basket on its head and kicks it 

 violently. * Not there, you see,' he says, * I wonder why 

 women can't keep their hands off things when they know 

 very well they have no business to meddle with 'em.' 

 Then he goes to the what-not, rakes off two photos, brings 

 down a lot of shells, breaks a fairy lamp, says a horrid word,, 

 and kicks the basket again. If it had not been for you 

 putting it away in one of your everlasting tidying crazes I 

 might have had twenty fish by now/ ' Well, my dear, da 

 not be impatient.' * There is no impatience about it,' he 

 shouts ; ' nobody ever can find anything in this house ; only 

 yesterday I had to look an hour for a hammer.' Then he 

 rushes upstairs, bangs the furniture about, whirls the pillows 

 round, and actually looks into a brilliantine bottle for a reel 

 weighing a pound, I should think. Then he looks under 

 the bed, bumps his head, and says another horrid word 

 worse than ever, and gets dust in his throat, I think, for he 

 coughs terribly. * If I do not sack both those rascally 

 servants and have this house better arranged, I will see,' 

 he says. ' Why, what are you thinking about ?' I enquired. 



* Thinking about ? thinking about ? I am thinking about 

 that confounded reel ; if you had left it where I put it, 

 I should not have been here now, like a blithering idiot, 

 without the means to land a fish on a day like this ; has not 

 been such a day for years.' Just then the reel fell out of the 

 pocket of his mackintosh hanging over the foot of the bed. 



* There, Frank, I told you I had not meddled with it.* 

 1 Meddled with it, who said you had meddled with it ? but you 

 knew where it was well enough,' and with that he rushed off 

 without a word. * Are you not going to say * Good 

 morning,' ' I called to him. * No, I am not ; I am going 

 out to buy a dozen reels. I will see if I cannot have a 

 day's fishing when I want it, without having to pull the 

 house down because of your confounded habit of putting 

 things where nobody can find 'em.' And with that he goes 



