142 THE ANGLER'S GUIDE. 



the water to the fish, as that they might be 

 brought out of the water to him ; and then, 

 what would become of him ? especially if no 

 one should be there to pull him out, for he 

 was a stout heavy man, and could not get out 

 himself. Then instead of having fish brought 

 home for supper, it would be the awful news 

 that he was drowned. These melancholy re- 

 flections had found their way into her mind, 

 and she had partly revealed them to Bigings ; 

 but he only laughed at her, and told her that 

 she was like all other women who loved their 

 husbands, always thinking all manner of fright- 

 ful things about them if they were a few miles 

 away from home. And he assured her that, 

 when a boy, he could swim like a fish himself, 

 and had often been thrashed by his school- 

 master in the summer time, for diving into 

 a neighbouring pond, instead of into the 

 elements of Walkingame's Tutor, or those of 

 his mother tongue ; and he had no doubt that 

 if he were put to it he could swim as well as 

 ever. That might be, his wife said, but it was 

 the particular swimming in his head that she 

 feared, for, be it -said to her praise, she did 

 not like to accuse him plainly of drunkenness. 

 But it now became a matter of concern with 



