BY THE MILL-STREAM. 139 



sharp if his health was rather delicate. They give 

 him leave to fish anywhere below the foot-bridge. 

 So he did. Never used to catch anything worth 

 taking home for a cat to feed on ; we reckoned him 

 up as a poor hand at it. Thursday come round as 

 usual, master and the missus had gone to market, 

 and I was out with the cart. There was only a 

 boy in the mill, and nothing had been said to him 

 about that tame trout. The boy knew that he had 

 leave to fish, so he only looked out of the mill- 

 window at him. He walked up from the meadow, 

 rod in hand, and stood on the foot-bridge. One 

 throw straight as a line, and he had hooked him ! 

 That boy has seen a tidy lot in the fishin' way, but 

 he told me he never see such quick work with a big 

 fish as that young man in delicate health made with 

 master's big trout. From what he seed of him he 

 must have been over seven pounds weight. When 

 master got out at the station, comin' back from 

 market, the porter told him the young gentleman 

 had gone back to town. ' He was quite well again,' 

 he said ; ' and, if I'm any judge of a fish, by only 

 seein' the tail, he'd the biggest trout in a basket ever 

 I see in my life 1 " 



