138 AN ANGLERS BASKET. 



" Well, yes," said the other, " I think I am all right, I fee! 

 very strong." "That is right," was the answer, "you 

 smell very strong." 



# * 



The coxswain on a west coast lifeboat told me that one- 

 wild winter's night they went out to help a Norwegian vessel 

 in distress. When they reached her, most of the crew had 

 been washed off, but four men and two boys remained with 

 the captain and his wife. The wife kept her head, as wives 

 always do (I think this will meet with no opposition), but 

 the captain begged, entreated, prayed, implored the crew of 

 the lifeboat to save him at any price. A thousand pounds 

 for himself should the coxswain have if he only put the 

 captain safe ashore, and there was a yawl at Bergen which 

 he could have as well. All his earthly treasures, in fact, 

 were the coxswain's the moment that Norwegian captain 

 set foot once more on dry land. " Well, sir," said the 

 coxswain to me, " we landed them all safe." " And did he 

 give you all these things," I asked. " No, sir," said the 

 skipper, " no ; when we had put 'em safe ashore he just 

 turned round and gave me sixpence." 



A famous English artist who died only a year or two- 

 ago, and whose works are among the most treasured of art 

 collectors, was visited one day by an enthusiastic amateur 

 from a distance, who purchased three pictures as they stood 

 on the easel in the artist's studio for twelve hundred guineas. 

 There was no " 2^- off for cash," nor anything of that kind, 

 it was money down and no nonsense. The old gentleman 

 could sell as many as he could paint at that price. Business 

 concluded, the buyer, who had come a long way, naturally 

 looked for lunch ; but the artist was a close-fisted man of 

 business, and there was none forthcoming, not even a glass 

 of wine to clench the bargain. " Come," said the painter, 



