'BY STREAM AND RIVERA 



157 



hard to catch, and the pool was full of them when 

 I first arrived. I cannot say conscientiously that 

 it was quite so full when I went away, but I rather 

 fancy that I left one or two to breed for the follow- 

 ing year. There was one fat fellow, at any rate, who 

 always retreated into a deep hole in the brickwork 

 of the gate ; I am not quite sure that I did not get 

 him on the last day of my stay. It was a very 

 juicy specimen, at any rate, and I trusted that it 

 was my fat enemy just for the sake of old 

 acquaintance ; I could hardly bear the thought of 

 leaving him behind : he was so stout and cosy, 

 and always retreated so coyly into his hole. 



Even if I did rather thin them down, no doubt 

 plenty more would come, for the pool was an ideal 

 one for them, full of big stones, with an old kettle 

 or two, and other nice odds and ends thrown in 

 to serve as hiding-places for them. I am afraid 

 that their hiding-places were rather death-traps 

 when I dived into the water to get my breakfast 

 every morning. I could not quite make out at 

 first what the queer creatures were crawling about 

 the bottom, and taking snappy sort of backward 

 swims from stone to stone ; however, a rat is not 

 the man to hesitate long when it is a question of 

 something to eat, and I soon summoned up courage 



