96 A.V ANGLER'S BASKET. 



E for a quart," and forthwith he swelled out the trombone 

 to its fullest length and blew as if it had been the crack of 

 doom. The bull declining to be thus overcome by clamour, 

 put up his tail, put down his head, and coming at a speed of 

 25 miles an hour, knocked the trombone player and the 

 trombone into cocked hats, and the proprietor finding himself 

 not much worse gathered up the remains of the fearful 

 instrument and triumphantly remarked, " Ye may be a very 

 strong mon, but ye are no musician." 



A certain reprobate in his last moments turned round to 

 the parson who was ministering to his wants, and said, " Ah ! 

 sir, if I'd only my time to come over again, I wouldn't go 

 and waste my money in anybody's beershop ; I'd keep a 

 pub of my own." 



* * 



The regular minister of a chapel over in the States had 

 exchanged pulpits with an itinerant, and the latter was not 

 to the taste of the congregation. The minister's hat was 

 passed round as a collecting box at the finish, and when in 

 due course after making the circuit of the chapel it came 

 back to the pulpit he turned it upside down to show the 

 brethren there was not a single cent in it ; then looking 

 towards the ceiling he said with deep fervour, " I thank God 

 I got back my hat from this congregation." 



An old fisherman I met once wandering about the 

 marshes in the estuary of a western river, told me of a highly 

 original method in use there for trapping wild ducks. They 

 cut in the earth small square holes just about the size of 

 the bird ; they dig a number of these holes and bait the 

 bottom of each of them with a few grains of wheat. The 

 birds coming on the feeding grounds find the holes, observe 



