THE RIVER. 327 



At any other time Pat Gallagher would 

 have been extremely disgusted that the fish, 

 which his immediate master had caught, 

 were exceeded so much both in number and 

 weight by those of the Captain ; for, besides 

 the grand subject of partizanship between 

 the Bally shannoners and Belleekers, there 

 was always a small subordinate jealousy 

 going on among the followers, that their 

 own particular master should be the head 

 fisherman of their own party : but all such 

 feelings were absorbed in intense admiration 

 of the Squire's fish, and the thoughts that, 

 let the Ballyshannoners do what they would, 

 they could never come up to that. He 

 would have felt himself a happier and a 

 prouder man, no doubt, had the good for- 

 tune happened to his own particular master, 

 but in the certainty of triumph of his party 

 over the Ballyshannoners, he was content to 

 overlook that. 



As the Scholar had before noticed, the 

 fish was carried by two men, one at the 

 head and the other at the tail; not, as 

 Johnny M'Gowan afterwards observed, but 

 that one man might have carried it easily 



