A DAY IN ELYSIAN FIELDS. 101 



torrents. Our landlord was not a bit huffed at the 

 changeableness of our minds. We ordered supper of 

 ham and eggs and tea, and we were presently ushered 

 into a very cosy private sitting-room where three 

 charming young ladies were reading and sewing ; but, 

 unhappily for us, no sooner had we entered their 

 symposium, than they gathered up their books and 

 fancy work, and flitted away like frightened fawns ; 

 and no wonder, for on surveying ourselves in the 

 glass on the mantelshelf, we discovered that we 

 looked like three half-drowned poachers who had just 

 been rescued from the river. 



There was a blazing fire in the room, at which we 

 dried our draggled habiliments, and we consoled our- 

 selves for the loss of the fairies by consuming a supper 

 more fit for the heroes we were than the brigands we 

 looked like. 



We caught the nine o'clock train, and so ended my 

 only visit to the Ver. I need not say that, despite 

 our disasters, we all longed to revisit that pleasant 

 stream and to make acquaintance with those splendid 

 trout under circumstances less favourable for them, 

 when their tails would be where they ought to be, 

 lying horizontally with their heads up-stream, and 

 keeping a keen look-out for the flies floating above 

 them. 



Now, my angling friends, as Christmas is coming, 

 I bid you all farewell, with this parting benediction : 

 May your homes be happy, may your wives be minis- 

 tering angels, may there be no domestic jars (except 

 for pickles and such like), no frettings and wranglings 

 and naggings, which are like the crackling of thorns 



