why Malcolm should not be unwilling to tell the
strange wild story requested of him, and he commenced it at once, but
modified the Scotch of it considerably for the sake of the unaccustomed
ears. When it was ended Clementina said nothing, Annie Mair said "Hech,
sirs!" and Lizzy, with a great sigh, remarked, "The deil maun be in a'
thing whaur God hasna a han', I'm thinkin'."

"Ye may tak yer aith upo' that," rejoined Malcolm.

It was a custom in Peter's boat never to draw the nets without a prayer,
uttered now by one, now by another of the crew. Upon this occasion,
whether it was in deference to Malcolm, who, as he well understood, did
not like long prayers, or that the presence of Clementina exercised some
restraint upon his spirit, out of the bows of the boat came now the solemn
voice of its master, bearing only this one sentence: "O Thoo, wha didst
tell thy dissiples to cast the net upo' the side whaur swam the fish, gien
it be Thy wull 'at we catch the nicht, lat 's catch: gien it binna Thy
wull, lat's no catch.--Haul awa', my laads."

Up sprang the men and went each to his place, and straight a torrent of
gleaming fish was pouring in over the gunwale of the boat. Such a take it
was ere the last of the nets was drawn as the oldest of them had seldom
seen. Thousands of fish there were that had never got into the meshes at
all.

"I cannot understand it," said Clementina. "There are multitudes more fish
than there are meshes in the nets to catch them: if they are not caught,
why do they not swim away?"

"Because they are drowned, my lady," answered Malcolm.

"What do you mean by that? How can you drown a fish?"

"You may call it _suffocated_ you like, my lady: it is all the same. You
have read of panic-stricken people, when a church or a theatre is on fire,
rushing to the door all in a heap and crowding each other to death? It is
something like that with the fish. They are swimming along in a great
shoal, yards thick; and when the first can get no farther, that does not
at once stop the rest, any more than it would in a crowd of people: those
that are behind come pressing up into every corner where there is room
till they are one dense mass. Then they push and push to get forward, and
can't get through, and the rest come still crowding on behind and above
and below, till a multitude of them are jammed so tight against each other
that they can't open their gills; and even if they could, there would not
be air eno