AN EVENING AT BELLEEK. 35 



Enchanted Throw. Why, my honest and 

 painstaking novice, you might have flogged 

 from this till Doomsday without rising a fish 

 there — the place is cursed. Have you never 

 heard of St. Columba?" 



" No," said the Scholar ; " what of him ? 

 and what has he to do with the fishing ? " 



" Why, for matter of that, St. Columba is 

 the patron saint of the salmon, and many a 

 good turn has he done them. For instance, 

 at Rose Isle, where you lost that fine fish 

 yesterday, instead of the two falls you see 

 now, there once was but one step from the 

 top to the bottom ; and you may easily con- 

 ceive that no fish that ever was spawned 

 could take the leap. But the tender-hearted 

 saint, grieving at their fruitless toil, and 

 pitying their battered sides as they fell back 

 into the whirling caldron below, prayed away 

 a good piece of the rock, and gave them that 

 easy comfortable staircase which you see this 

 day. In good truth, St. Columba was a 

 very worthy saint when his bristles were not 

 up ; but Irish saints are apt to be peppery, 

 and I am sure Job himself could not be ex- 

 pected to stand the loss of his dinner. Still 

 I must confess that the story I am going to 



