Litchfield enquirer., 1876-05-04

 ner with us. and you must not be alarmed if we are not home before dark" said ! Burnett. to his sister, as they sat on the wide piazza facing the bay. the even ing before his contemplated depar- sture.
 T am afraid to let you go, Burnett. feel responsible for you, and think it will be best to keep you in sight till fa- ther returns" said Belle, with affected seriousness.
 T promise you. Miss Belle, to take am- pie care of this part of your charge dur ing tomorrow, and if I do not return him in as good condition as when bor- rowed, then mine be the unpardonable blame."
 Ralph Austin assumed the attitude of { pleader during this little speech though its most eloquent part was in the bright black eyes that beamed lovingly on her as he spoke.
 "With such promise 1 cannot with hold my consent, so Alice andI will see that you have basket full of all the good things We can find for your din- ner."
 "Mr, Ralph Austin, as it is you who have obtained permission from the com- manding office for me to visit Pass Ca vallo with you, permit me to tender you my sincere, need l say heartfelt thanks. ever have an opportunity to do you a like favor, pray always consider me yours to command"
 Burnett look in such way at his beau tiful sister, as he spoke, as brough3 . brighter glow to her rounded cheeks.
 Next morning Burnett Delmar and Ralph Austin were up by daylight, and, as an early breakfast had been ordered, Belle and Alice Morton were up and shared with the young men.
 Do not remain after sundown, or we shall be very uneasy" said Belle, as she kissed her brother good-by, and gave her little hand to his friend.
 Ralph Austin, if he had his wish grati- fled ill the matter, would not have gone at all; for what was to sail to Pass Ca- vallo compared with the same time spent near "th- Lily of Matagorda," as the young men of the section called Belle Delmar? And, not being anxious to go for the reason mentioned, the same mo- tive would force him to return as soon as possible: so he assured Belle they would return long before dark.
 The yacht was mooyed in narrow but very deep bayou that emptied into an arm of Matagorda Bay--a place long famed for it's oyster-beds, and as duck shooting point. second to none on the coast. It was sixteen miles to Pass Ca- yallo, where the waters of the bay met those of the Gulf.
 The wind was blowing off shore, as it szsually does at that season in the morn ing, and there was not cloud in the blue sky even so big as mans hand. A bet ter day could not have been selected, and as the yacht sped over the bay, frighten- ing myriads of waterfowl from it's course, the young men shouted and sang and laughed in their very excess of spirits.
 What an intense pleasure life is at such times the young life in perfect sympathy with the Spring season, the fresh breeze, the rippling waters, and azure sky, the very motion of the boat, as it bounded along, beating poetic meas ures to their throbbing hearts.
 They reached Saluria, little village on the shore of the Pass, in about three hours, and here they stopped to fish. The disciples of Izaak Walton, who claim that the sport of angling consists in the long search for the game, and then in the skill with which the shy fish is hooked would have no pleasure fishing in Mata- gorda Bay.
 Looking over the side of the anchored yacht, the young men could see the waters beneath literally alive with fish. glancing and flashing like animated jew els in settings of silver and gold.
 Reddish. snappers, bass, garfish, trout, msckerel, with here and there 8 monster sea-turtle passing over the white bottom like cloud-shadow across beautiful landscape. They could see about them the protruding dorsals of the huge sharks that haunt the beautiful bay like old pirates that have retired from the more active plunder of the seas.
 Fast as the baited lines could be dropped, the fish leaped for them, so that fishing was simply the mechanical throwing over of lines, and, without 8 cessation of motion, hauling them in. Burnett had 8 tank in the yacht, into which the fish were thrown as soon as caught, and this. tank, capable of hold ing several hundred weight, was filled within an hour.
 "Now, Burnett" said Ralph Austin, af- ter they had eaten dinner, ''it is noon. With this wind it will take us four hour, to get back, and, as Miss Belle has virtu- ally made me your guardian, 1 propose we return" @
 "All right, Ralph; but on one eondi- tion."
 "What is that?'
 That we stop at Duprez Bar, about three miles out of the course, and get some oysters. Duprez Bar is the place where the+ aristocratic oysters do most eongregate."
 I am agreed, Burnett" And, to show he was anxious to be under way, Ralph Idrew up the anchor. and in few minutes they were out of the Pass and sailing up the bay.
 The wind had nearly died out when