The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-01

4 NEWFOUNDLAND F1sH SroRy.-We find
the following in q letter to the New York
E0tatng Post:-One of those glib-tongued,
stout danes, q ~well-known character, noted
for her ready wit and unscrupulous sharpness
in bargain-making, presented herself one
morning at the door Of the late Roman
Catholic Bishop with o fine salmon in her
basket. may as well say that her name was
Peg Stack-for Peg does not care q button
about her name appearing in the pages of the
ECe1iRg Post. His lordship happened
to be about the entrance, and Peg
piled all her tongue power to induce
the Bishop to purchase her fish. Her
praises of the ''craythur," as she called
the salmon, we're loud and profuse. She
begged his lordship to remark it's splendid
development of shoulder, but, above all, the
unusual plumpness of the abdominal region,
showing that it must have come of good stock
and been well brought up. 'None O yir poor
starved things, as thin as a herrin'--not fit
for a iintleman's table," When the fish came
to be weighed, it certainly justified Pegs
%eulogium; its weight, in fact, quite ~astonished
his lordship, considering the size of the fish.
Peg got her money and departed in triumph.
Soon sitter the cook proceeded to operate on
the salmon, and to her horror and amazement
she found its whole interior closely packed
with smooth, wster-worn pebbles. The im-
pious Peg, reckless of consequences in the I'M
seen hereafter, Drawing all purgatOrial pains
and penalties, had actually cheated his lord
ship the bishop in this barefaced fashion.
Naturally one would have fancied that Peg,
after such q transaction, would be shy Of the
''palace" door for some time. But no! His
lordship saw the audacious Peg the very next
day ascending the steps OF his mansion with
another salmon for sale, and apparently as
unconscious of any wrong and as placidly in
nocent as a babe, With q stern countenance
his lordsbip opened the door himself, and let
loose the foodgates of his wrath upon Pegs
devoted head, reproducing her severely with
her shameful dishonesty. But Peg quailed
not before the storm. She held up her hands
and called upon all the saints in heaven to
witness her innocence, and repudiated the
vile charge made against her. The bishops
wrath then became terrible, and in stern
tones he demanded to be informed whence
came the four pounds of pebbles with
which the salmon was stuffed. "Arrah
shure, yer lordship ought, to know by this
time, replied the imperturbable Peg, that
the salmon, the craythurs, always take in
ballast when q gale of wind is risin'; aud,
more betoken, doesn't your lordship remem-
Der that there was q bad blast of an ~easterly
wind the very night before the beauty was
cotched; and We see he hadn't time to get his
ballast throwed overheard before he was
hooked" The Bishop was q good-natured
man at bottom, and dearly loved q joke. This
was too much for his gravity. He burst into
an uncontrollable ut of laughter; and the in
corrigible Peg saw in @ moment that the day
was her own. 1t is said that she dined that
day sumptuously in the ''palace" kitchen; and
many a time afterward did his lordship set
his guests in a roar by narrating, in his own
inimitable manner, the story of "Peg Stack
and the ballasted salmon"