THE SA LMON. 113 



of necessity, close to the shore, had stationed him- 

 self in advance, the ready gaff, already plunged 

 into the water, in his hand. As the fish passed, 

 Jemmy, standing knee-deep in the stream, struck 

 him well and fairly, and, half overpowered with his 

 weight and the strength of the stream, struggled 

 manfully ashore, landing him at my feet with a 

 triumphant yell that might have graced the victor 

 in a faction-fight. The salmon weighed full twenty 

 pounds. I overheard Jemmy subsequently giving 

 a detail of the exploit to a brother fisherman ; his 

 narrative was more poetic, but less accurate, than 

 my own. "The weight was near thirty pounds. 

 The master, more power to him ! had run two miles 

 without stopping, barrin' the halt the skaming 

 vagabond" (not meaning the master) "had made 

 in Pwlgarrow; he'd surely have got to the say 

 itself," but for the prodigious acumen and won- 

 derful pluck of Jemmy himself; winding up with 

 "and when his honour saw the baste lying there, 

 and me atop of him, 'Jemmy, you blaggard/ 

 he says, 'that's the foinest gaff that ever was 

 made in or out of Ballycroy/ says he, 'and 

 there 's half-a-crown for ye!"' Whether the hint 

 was taken matters not to my readers, and I 

 must apologise for the egotistical character of 



this episode; but I was anxious to show that 



8 



