THE NATURALIST DEVELOPING. V1 
transferred to our pockets; or else to throw a crust of bread 
across the table and hit a neighbor on the nose, or pull the 
ears of the servant giris m waiting, or indeed perform any 
other ingenious antics which did not require too much time, 
or cause too great a noise ! 
No sooner did the good man close his eyes than there 
was so general a movement of heads and hands, such loud 
whispering and noisy attempts to choke down laughter. that 
with all his Sunday morning solemnity he could not help 
hearing, and accordingly cut short the grace in time to open 
his eyes upon the most vivid, interesting tableaux conceivable 
of grins, grimaces, hob-nobbing heads and pointing fingers ; 
following the direction of which, involuntarily his eye rested 
first upon my unlucky self, and then upon the monster trout 
against the pillar, as the cause of this ill-timed hubbub. He 
started somewhat as his eye took in its size, and the severe 
frown gathering upon his brow was contradicted by a slight 
nervous twitch of relaxation at the corner of his mouth; our 
watchful eyes detected instantly this favorable sign, and there 
was one general burst of the smothered laughter from all sides, 
above which rose the stern command,— 
“Silence! what does this mean, young gentlemen ?” 
But it was too late now for authority to be regained at once, 
and peal after peal of unrestrainable laughter set order at de- 
fiance. But, fortunately for the delinquents, the good man’s 
eyes seemed to wander abstractedly, drawn by some irre- 
sistible attraction towards the trout. Suddenly he muttered, 
as if to himself,— 
“Why, as I live, that fish must weigh more than ten 
pounds!” and forgetting all our outrageous conduct for the 
moment, he strode across the passage, took down his kittle 
spring balance, which he always used for such purposes, and, 
to our increased amusement and delight, proceeded immedi 
ately to satisfy himself as to the weight. 
“Twelve pounds!” he exclaimed, drawing a long breath 
