e, and a few minutes after they
would die.

"Yes, it's sad business, Alison Dale," Mr Preddle would say with a
sigh, as he lifted a little trout out of one tray, or a tiny salmon from
another. "I'm afraid that I shall not have many left by the time I
arrive over in New Zealand."

"Perhaps they will get on better when we are in warmer parts."

"I'm afraid they'll die faster then," he said, taking something out of a
locked-up box under one of the water-troughs, and to my surprise I saw
that it was an ordinary pair of kitchen bellows.

"What! are you going to light a fire to warm them, sir?" I said.

He smiled.

"No, no; don't you know that fish require plenty of air?"

"Yes, I've heard something of the kind, and that if a pond is frozen
over, and the ice is not broken, the fish die."

"Exactly, for want of air. Look at those fish in that trough."

"Yes, they're hungry," I said, for in one corner a number of them were
putting their mouths nearly out of the water, and opening and shutting
them.

"No, they want air; there is not enough in the water. Now you'll see."

He thrust the nozzle of the bellows beneath the surface, and began
puffing away till the water boiled and bubbled and was covered with
foam, while after the first few puffs the fish swam about more
vigorously and left the surface.

"There, you see," he said, "there is plenty of air now," and he served
the other troughs the same. "Now, look here, Alison Dale," he said, as
he replaced the bellows, and locked the box, "I'll leave the key behind
this trough, and if you would not mind, I should be greatly obliged if
you would give the fish a little air now and then just to help me, for I
should dearly like to keep the poor things alive."

"Oh yes," I said, "I'll do it whenever I have a chance, but I don't
quite understand; I thought fish breathed water."

"With air in it. If there is no air to mingle with the water, the fish
soon die."

"But air over the water, you mean," I said.

"No; in the water; it will hold an enormous deal of air or gas. Look at
soda-water, for instance, how full of gas that is, and how the tiny
beads come bubbling out as soon as the pressure is removed. Now, if I
only had a few fish in these troughs, there would be plenty of air for
them naturally in the water, but with so many in my charge," he sighed,
"it must be supplied artificially."

"All right, then, we'll supply it artificially; but it looks very comic
to