an across
and down, and generally bucked up, as a modern school miss would say.
He gave up dawdling, and fought it out briskly. By and by we got a
glimpse of a flash of silver, and it was an undoubted fish. The gaff,
which I had not seen yesterday, now appeared, and the second boatman
stood by with the priest to administer the quietus to a lovely spring
salmon of 17 lb.

Within a quarter of an hour I was rudely roused from a reading of _The
Fair Maid of Perth_ by the sand eel rod to the left, and here was a
fish powerful and alert from the start. He was held hard, but took out
line persistently; if I winched up a few yards they were torn angrily
off again. And so the contest was maintained, and intensified when I
stood on the turfy slope. It was encouraging to see the men step forth
with gaff and priest again. For twenty minutes the salmon kept down
and never quiet, and then very slowly I winched up the fifty yards
which had been taken out in instalments. The silver swirl satisfied us
all, and presently the career of a stately 19-pounder was ended.

After luncheon we put out again, and I was tolerably certain that if no
other fish came to boat I should not break my heart nor die of grief.
The taking of that handsome pair of spring salmon was an admirable
tonic, and I resumed my Scott in a contented mood. After three
chapters the mood was not quite the same; after a fourth I felt
somewhat ill-used. Two hours, in short, passed, and the wind had
veered round to the north. In other words, it was cold. Tom Thumb
warmed me up eventually; its gudgeon had been taken, and I had
something in secure custody. A big one, at any rate, of what quality
we should determine later. I had grave doubts, however, of the issue,
for he terminated each run by coming to the top and swirling there most
uncannily. Patience and the butt in time revealed him the best fish of
the day, and I heaved a sigh of relief and sat down on a rock for
breath when the gaff lifted him out, the priest shrived him, and the
balance stood at 20 1/2 lb. A truly handsome leash of salmon!

CHAPTER VIII

ANGLING COUSINS AT THE VICARAGE

The girls seemed to have moderated their zeal for the bicycle, and in
truth it was too hot to last. Then they were all for angling, and for
this we had to thank certain books recently reviewed and the vicar of
Netherbate. It fell to a useful cousin's lot to purchase the books.
The girls were intensely intereste