The record-union., 1895-06-08
PROFESSOR FLBG. FISHERMAN.

Professor Fleg had never caught q
salmon or sea-trout, and when he ac-
companied Colonel Burscough and Rob-
ert to the shootingbox which they had
rented in Skye. it was his great ambition
to fill this vacant niche in his life's
achievements. Indeed. he never spoke
of the blank without some sense ofshame.
Yelling it, as it were, from the indiscre-
ton of the vulgar.
For when you would ask the Professor
II he had ever caught a salmon, he would
reply: well, no, not exactly, my dear
sir" for ne was the very soul of honor;
''but 1 have fished for them, though al
ways with i'll success, and 1 have GATED
a salmon foi a more fortunate or more
skillful angler"
So Professor Fleg came to Skye full OF
hope.
But this year Skye suffered under an
infliction that does not often befall il. 1t
labored under partial drought. The
salmon could not go up the Skaebost-
that mighty river, SO much like the Re-
gents Park Canal-nor could the sea-
trout get up the lesser burns. They
would be seen jumping what McBain,
the Gaelic man OF all work, called chimp
ing'') in the loch, looking for fresh water
that they might ascend, until, as Nc
Balm said, he could not bear to be on the
yachts deck any longer, but must go
below that he might not see this tantal-
iZing sight of fish that he could not
catch, albeit there was fine sport to be
had splash-netting" at the burns
mouths.
And Professor Fleg mingled sympa-
tnetlc tears with the trouble OF the salmon
quantity to produce spate.
But then there came day, an evening
on the Saturday, when the dark clouds
began rushing across the Minch from the
lists and all outer Hebrides, be-word.
painted by Black, and poured down all
night liberal rain upon the land OF
Skye. And the next morning. being
Sunday, sea-trout came up as far as the
bridge pool in the burn that runs past
the house, and kept rising hungrily as if
il were long since he had tasted fresh
food.
1t was clear by this time, and the spate
was only partial. But the sea-trout was
content, and did not try to go up any
farther. Only Professor Fieg was not
content, as he watched him through his
spectacies. The Professor did not go to
church, but spent his time in conten-
plating Natures handiwork in the shape
OF that trout in the bridge pool. For a
long time he watched IL and was strong.
Then he grew weak and yielded.
He went into the house and got his rod
and line. He put on his best "blue up
right" having cultured taste for quiet
colors, and began to throw with much
satisfaction over the spot where the fish
was rising. Alter every second throw
he managed to hook himself in the leg,
the hat or the spectacles, and spent a
while in disentangling himself. But the
wind was with him, and his line went
out over the water of its own accord, and
the fly fell lightly. greatly 10 the Profess
sor's admiration.
At the sixth throw he felt that sudden
Intoxicating tug, followed by variable
strain upon the responsive upper joint of
the rod which means a bite. Professor
F'leg flushed redly with pleasure and ex-
element, and prepared to display all his
skill in landing this his first sea-trout
He feard to give the fish too much line,
for he was not an adept at reeling up, and
preferred TO dash after the trout ankle
deep in water. Then it seemed to threaten
to lead him into the rapids at the tail of
the pool, so, giving him the butt, the Pro-
lessor ventured TO put little strain on
him. He yielded kindly, and the Pro-
lessor grew more bold, tightening his
hold upon him until he gradually brought
him to the bank, where he bounced on
the fish with one hand while holding the
rod aloft SO as to keep steady strain
upon him.
And so he landed his first sea-trout,
and it weighed as near as possible three
eighths of pound.
And this was the Sabbath day.
The Professor threw down his rod and
line, sighed with relief, looked lovingly
at the trout. Then he drew out his pocket
handk erchief with his right hand, and re-
moving his hat with his left turned his
lace TO the cooling breeze and prepared
TO mop his warm and intellectual brow.
In this unfinished pose he was suddenly
arrested, as if turned TO stone, by meeting
the gaze of half score of bodies" who
were watching him over the side Of the
bridge close by.
They were crofter bodies, and the odor
of peat smoke and of strong disapproval
of his proceedings was waited down upon
the Professor even before they spoke.
For the most part they spoke in Gaelic,
but few spoke in q tongue resem bling
English. And this is what they said:
'Eh, mon, did body liver see the like
of it?'
"a sea-troot it is. Alickv
"WT rod and line, forbyew as If there
were something more profanely secular
in this misuse OF the engines of Walton's
craft than if it had been an honest net.
Are We no mindin', ye sinful body,
that this is the Saw bath day."
70 tell the truth, this was a circum-
stance which the events of the previous
ten minutes had entirely put out of MIR.
Fleg's head. But on the direct challenge
of his last interlocutor he became at once
alive to the enormity of his indiscretion.
In infinite confusion he laid his hat rev.
erently beside the trout and began: my
dear people" But he was Interrupted
by discordant Gaelic turmoil, across
which came, in Lowland Scotch, "Eh!
dinna speak. Wen haze ma dealin's wiz
We, We sinful body"
The Professor was one of the most sem
sitive as well as most habitually courte-
Gus of men, and he felt that he had never
been in SO disconcerting and distress
ing a condition. The only thing that it
occurred to him to do, in the perplexity
of the situation, was to unfasten The trout
from the hook, and taking it in his hand
as peace offering, approach in this con-
ciliatory manner the little crowd upon
the bridge. Nor, in his pride at the cap
ture of the fish, did its inadequacy as a
peace Offering occur to him, for it was but
fish of something between quarter and
half pound weight. But being his first
sea-trout it appeared to the Professor in
the light OF far more precious thing