a
three-pounder rose from his place down in the deep water. He didn't
come head foremost, nor glancing upward, but rose square up to the
surface, and pausing a single instant, darted forward like an arrow
and seized the fly. Well, away he plunged with the hook in his jaw,
bending my elastic rod like a reed, the reel hissing as the line spun
away eighty or a hundred feet across the current, and far out into
the lake; but he was fast, and after struggling for a time, he
partially surrendered, and I reeled him in. Slowly, and with a sullen
struggling, he was drawn towards the shore, sometimes with his head
out of water, and sometimes diving towards the bottom. At last, he
caught sight of me, and with renewed energy he plunged away again,
clear across the current and out into the lake. But the tension of the
elastic rod working against him steadily, and always, was too much for
his strength, and again I reeled him in, struggling still, though
faintly. Slowly, but steadily, I reeled him to my hand. He was just by
the edge of the rock, almost within reach of my landing net, when,
with a last desperate effort to escape, he plunged towards the bottom,
made a dive under the rock, the line came against its edge, slipped
gratingly for a moment, snapped, and the fish was gone. He was a
beautiful trout, and beautifully he played. He deserved freedom on
account of the energy with which he struggled for it.

"You will see, therefore, that, as I said, I was in a dilemma. The
action against me was well brought. I could not deny the truth of the
facts charged against me in the complaint. In this position of
affairs, three alternatives presented themselves; first, a denial of
the truth of the complaint, but that involved perjury; secondly,
admission of the facts charged, but that involved conviction; and,
thirdly, a compromise, and the latter one I adopted.

"'Can't this thing be settled,' said I, to the old lawyer fish of the
St. Lawrence, 'without litigation? me and my four companions
overboard, place us in _statu quo_, and the action shall be
discontinued.'

"'Agreed,' said I, and I reached down to enter upon the performance of
my part of the contract.

"'Wait a moment,' said he, curling up his shaky tail, 'the costs--who
pays the costs?'

"'The costs!' I replied, 'each pays his own, of course.'

"'Not so fast,' he exclaimed, 'not quite so fast. You must pay the
costs, or the suit goes on.'

"There was something human in the