Two Big Pike. 95 



boat, his face beaming with delight, and with 

 his hat off, mopping his face after the exertion 

 and excitement, when, sniff, "What is that 

 burning ? " sniff, " By Jove ! I'm on fire." The 

 smoke was coming out of his pocket. To whip 

 his coat off was the work of a moment. " Dip 

 it in the water," exclaimed some one, and dipped 

 it was. When he felt in the pocket he pulled 

 out his handkerchief full of holes, but the pipe 

 was gone. " Confound it," said the squire ; " I 

 wish the fish was at the bottom of the pond; 

 I wouldn't have lost that pipe for anything." 

 However, it was of no use grumbling ; he had 

 got the fish, and the pipe was gone. 



We then decided to pull in to shore and 

 have our lunch, which we thought we had well 

 earned. On turning out the basket we found 

 a good-sized beef-steak pie, a very small cheese, 

 which one of the squire's tenants used to 

 make for him on purpose for shooting and 

 fishing luncheons, a good home-baked loaf, 

 half-a-dozen bottles of Bass', besides the bottle 

 of whiskey which we had already tapped. 

 Having done ample justice to the lunch, and 

 topped up with a glass of whiskey all round, 

 I lighted a cigar, and again offered the-squire 



