372 Fly -rods and Fly- tackle. 



master thought we might find one a shade better than 

 the other, and to that one we went, the girl, who had 

 listened eagerly to his cross-examination, following. 



We found the accommodations not so bad, and also 

 that our boat, though due, had not returned as yet 

 from her last trip, and that we must wait for her. It 

 was supposed the dew had been insufficient somewhere 

 up the river. Having removed the dust of travel, we 

 went to supper, in which we felt the angler's customary 

 deep interest. But this interest soon gave place to a 

 far deeper interest, for opposite sat our fellow-traveller, 

 vainly endeavoring to eat, while tear chased tear in 

 quick succession down each side of her pretty nose. 

 We inferred that she, too, was a stranger to Golden the 

 dismal, and that it had found no favor in her sight 

 in short, that she was homesick. So after the manner 

 of anglers, at any rate of bachelor anglers, our hearts 

 became as wax at the sight of girl's tears, and we cast 

 about to devise at least some palliative, if not a remedy. 

 Fortunately our party was well equipped for such an 

 emergency, since at its head stood our senior's wife, a 

 lady whose tact was equalled by her kindness of heart, 

 while our junior was a college lad, tall, strong, and deb- 

 onair, and with a ready zeal in the service of a pretty 

 girl difficult to exaggerate. 



We soon had her story. She lived in Victoria on 

 Vancouver's Island, had never been from home before, 

 had received the appointment of school-mistress at 

 Golden, and had come to take the place. But our land- 

 lord a big, burly, brutal, red-headed ruffian, at least to 

 the eye had informed her that he was one of the school- 

 board, that he had not been consulted about her appoint- 

 ment, and that he would be not blest if she should 



