th gut attachments. The lobster can was
produced, and wriggling worms fixed on the hooks. "A worm at one end and
a fool at the other," said the lawyer. "Speak for yourself, sir,"
replied the dominie. The next thing was to get into the canoe, which was
safely effected. Then, the question arose, how was she to be moored in
the current? Wilkinson suggested a stake driven into the bottom for the
deep-sea mooring, and an attachment to the exposed root of the lovely
overhanging birch for that to landward. So Coristine sprang ashore, cut
a heavier birch, and trimmed one end to a point. Bringing this on board,
he handed it to his companion, and, paddling up stream, brought him
opposite the overarching tree. The dominie drove the stake deep into the
river mud and pressed it down. The stake was all that could be desired
for a deep-sea mooring, and to it the painter was attached.

"What are you going to do about your end of the vessel, Corry?" he
asked.

"That's all right," replied the lawyer, who, forthwith, took off coat
and waistcoat.

"You are not going to undress, I hope," remarked his friend; "there is a
bare possibility that people, even ladies, might be walking this way,
sir, and I do not wish to be disgraced."

"Never fear, Wilks, my boy, it's my braces I am after." With this,
Coristine took off these articles, and, fastening a button hole over a
rusty nail in the stern, tied the other end about a root of the birch.
The dug-out was securely fastened, so that the current only rocked it a
little, causing the lawyer to sing "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep."
Then they sat down on their boards and began fishing.

They had a very pleasant hour hooking shiners and chub, and an
occasional perch that looked at a distance like a trout. The dominie,
_apropos_ of his friend's braces, told Alphonse Karr's story of the
_bretellier_ in the Jardin des Plantes, and the credulous sceptic who
did not believe that a suspender tree existed. He knew that cotton grew
on a shrub, and that caoutchouc exuded from a tree, and admitted the
possibility of their natural combination, but thought his deceivers had
reference to braces with metal attachments.

"That reminds me," said the lawyer, "of a man from Lanark that came into
our office asking where he'd find a mining geologist. He had some
grey-looking cork and leather wrapped up in a newspaper, and said he had
dug them out of the ground where there was lots more of both of them. I
told hi