XXXIV.-AT LAST! 



7UI R. Hopper, I have been a lonely bachelor for more 

 / \ than twelve months, which is a long- period for a fish to 

 remain in a state of single blessedness, so I have 

 ventured from my watery retreat in the Park lake for a short 

 time to write a letter to inform you and that portion of the 

 Grimsby public which frequents the Park of my approaching 

 nuptials. Oh ! Mr. Hopper, these twelve months have been an 

 awful time for me. I am just upon 40 years of age, and' the 

 bluest of blue blood flows in my veins. I am not a common 

 river carp ; my associations and family connections from the 

 first day of my existence have been of the most aristocratic and 

 exclusive nature. My parents indeed my ancestors for many 

 generations were born on Yarborough soil. Oh ! how I sigh 

 for Croxby lake ! It was there we were all born. And then one 

 day, simply because I saw a lump of sweet paste so innocent 

 looking and took it in my mouth, I was ruthlessly snatched 

 from the home of my ancestors and transferred to the lake in 

 the Grimsby People's Park, there to lead a solitary life, so far 

 as my own kith and kin are concerned, for upwards of twelve 

 months. 



No, Mr. Hopper, I never expected to see my flame Bessy 

 again. She was 30 years old, which is quite a juvenile age for 

 one of the carp species, and we had courted a number of years, 

 and we were just about being married when some horrid man, 

 as I have since heard, laid that tempting morsel of paste right 

 under my nose. It was just breakfast-time that horrid man 

 must have known I was hungry well, I took the paste in my 

 mouth, and commenced to swim away, when all at once 

 Whew ! I felt something awful being driven into my jaws, and 

 a shock like a young earthquake. I struggled hard for a long- 

 time, but eventually I was towed ashore with a long line, and 

 lifted in a net out of the water on to the bank. Oh ! if I had 

 been wise in time ! I found standing on the bank, showing 

 every sign of the most rapturous glee and pleasure, a man I 

 had often seen on the bank previously, and I had often 



