270 I GO A -FISHING. 



diamond and ruby compared with the soft glow of the 

 pearl. Do you know these little Pemigewasset trout are 

 so exquisite in their pearl and rose colors that I didn't 

 wonder the other day at the exclamation of a very pretty 

 girl in the chariot on the way to the Flume, when they 

 pulled up by me down the river and asked to see my 

 basket. ' Oh, I want to kiss them,' she said." 



" You did'nt know her ?" 



" Never saw her before, or since." 



" It was a fresh remark. I like it. I wonder who she 

 was. It's a pleasant thing now and then to hear a bit of 

 nature out of red lips." 



"Your experience in the utterances of red lips is rather 

 limited, Major. I was telling you just now that you live 

 too much on books and too little on realities." 



" On red lips, for instance ?" 



" Exactly. An old bachelor like you has great oppor- 

 tunities in life. You might take to fishing even, and per- 

 haps some day, when you have a full basket, a pretty girl 

 may ask you to let her look at the speckled beauties, and 

 then — what might not happen as a consequence ?" 



" Bah ! I've been through it all." 



" You ?" 



U T >) 



"Fishing and — " 



" Red lips — yes. Redder than this blood of the grape, 

 and a thousand times as maddening. What do you boys 

 of these late years fancy you can teach me, either in sports 

 of the forest or loves of the town. I had drunk all the 

 wine of that life up, and the cup was empty before you 

 were born." 



The Major was excited, and his dates were evidently 

 confused. But it was refreshing to be called a boy, and 



