A DAY UP THE RIVER. Ill 



weight, that had taken up its abode under 

 one of the bridges, and I was supposed to 

 be the knight for whom the adventure of 

 catching it was reserved. Well, sure enough, 

 I hooked it at the first cast ; but before I 

 could get command of my line, the fish had 

 run me under the bridge and defied every 

 effort to get him out. I suppose I might 

 have been a quarter of an hour playing him, 

 with ten or a dozen fishermen and water- 

 keepers standing round me and offering 

 every conceivable piece of advice, when it 

 occurred to some of them to send a man 

 under the bridge ; he succeeded in un- 

 hooking me from a great weedy post ; and 

 till then there was not a man of them all 

 who had the smallest idea that the fish was 

 off." 



" Well, I cannot say but that it was some 

 time before I had any suspicion of the na- 

 ture of the Scholar's capture this morning, 

 though I never did expect to see a salmon 

 caught on such a day as this." 



" What made you all so positive about the 

 day ? " said the Scholar ; " you are always 

 finding out some excellent reason why fish 

 will not rise. Now it's the water, and then 



