304 A TOUCHING INCIDENT. 



fishing was given up for any other : and many a sceptic 

 has been convinced of the truth of all this by having 

 eighteen feet of hickory and a hundred yards of line put 

 into his hands, with a salmon freshly hooked at one end 

 of the line. 



There is a story told of a pawkey old Scot, whose wife 

 was very ill, but who, tempted by the fine ply in which 

 the river was, had just slipped away and stepped down to 

 ' tak a cast o' her.' He had just risen and hooked a 

 splendid fish which was showing him magnificent sport, 

 when one came running to him wringing his hands and 

 crying, * Laird, laird, the mistress is deein deein deein ! ' 

 4 A mon I ye dinna say sae ! Rin awa' bock thin, Donald, 

 and tell her joost to hing on till a've kill't the fusshe.' 

 The words were hardly out of his mouth, when, as if to 

 punish him for his inhumanity, the salmon gave a great 

 spring and broke away. * Was ever the likes o' that ? 

 it's joost a judgment!' was the exclamation, as handing 

 the rod to his retainer, he hurried off to his wife's bedside, 

 and duly received her last breath and cheered her last 

 moments. Great and sincere was his grief, and he mourned 

 her deeply. Old friends and neighbours came to console 

 him. His old crony, Rab M'Allister, mingled his sym- 

 pathy with praises of the virtues of the departed. 'She 

 was aye a gude wife, laird/ The laird assented, with a sad 

 shake of the head. But 'we're a' dust, laird.' 'We're 

 that ; oh, we're that ; dinna doot it,' was the melancholy 

 response. ' And ye've tint her, laird.' At this the laird 

 brightened up. ' It's varra true, Rab ; but did ye hear o' 

 the big fusshe the news o't tint me i' the morn? Hey, 

 mon, that was a fusshe ! ' 



Perhaps of all the branches of angling none have made 

 such strides in popularity as salmon-fishing. Formerly it 

 was confined to the favoured few to those who could 

 afford to devote a fortnight to travel into Scotland or the 



