320 THE RIVER. 



excuse for poaching on such a day as this. 

 What is that you have got in your hand, 

 Slievan ? Come, out with it at once — out 

 with it. Are you not ashamed of your- 

 selves ?" he continued, laughing, as he held 

 up three large hooks bound back to back, 

 and weighted, as Pat had insinuated, with a 

 heavy bead of lead, which hung down by a 

 piece of barber's silk from the middle of them. 



" Well," said the Scholar, " you need not 

 laugh at me, at all events. I learned it 

 from Slievan, and Slievan does say — lying 

 dog that he is — that he learnt it from you, 

 and that he saw you catch a fish with the 

 Jack Ketch from this very throw." 



"I own the soft impeachment,' ' said the 

 Parson ; " but it was in bright weather, 

 when we were hard run for fish — not on 

 such a fine, warm, cloudy day as this. Nor 

 do I myself boast the fine chivalrous sense 

 of fair fishing, which the Captain professes ; 

 he would consider such a thing as this a 

 regular piscatory swindle, and would be as 

 much horror-struck at it as if you had been 

 swindling men instead of fish." 



" You did not seem much more tolerant 

 yourself just now." 



