The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-08-06

MacTaviSh, the gamekeeper, came
home the other evening in an excited
condition, writes Charles Edwardes in
Macmillan's Magazine. He had been
enjoying night and day out on the
fine stream over which his brother, also
keeper, exercised watch and ward for
his master, Lord B. The sea trout were
up, and MacTayish was not the man to
neglect them in the prime OF their
freshness and numbers. He had fished
all night and the greater part of the
day, and a bag of twenty-three beau
ties was the result. OF these he
brought home only the odd three,
weighing two and half pounds apiece
on the average when relieved of their
insides. A dead weight of seven or
eight pounds was quite enough for his
shoulders in the fourteen mile walk
home over the hills. But he brought
with him something else, in his own
inside-towit, a blameable number
of drains OF whisky. When he iurched
into the byre, where l was contemplate
ing my rod, the whisky proclaimed
itself. "Eh, mon," he exclaimed, the
grand time I've had! There's folks nd
give their ears for such a night. and
I'm just thirsting for a wee drip from
your bottle"
He clapped me on the shoulder with
the words and looked what he was. 1t
was the first time he had displayed
such democratic good fellowship. AS
the person who rented his parlor and
the bedroom with two really spacious
windows to it under the thatch, / was,
In his wife's opinion, a gentleman of
some distinction, whether or not | was
good fisherman, and MacTavish
in Of wit o'o
prejudices He had already put me to
the challenge on the subject Of his own
absorbing passion. Are We a real
f1sherT" he had asked me once. viii
ye go through fire and water and all
the midges in all Scotlands glens put
together to land a bonnie salmon? If
ye're no that and just that, ye're moth
ing by-ordinar, We ken" And l had
hesitated to admit that I merited SO
sweeping a certificate of character.
| The midges in our one glen were quite
enough to go on with, to say nothing
about the atrOciously awkward uph0l-
stery to certain OF the pools. But those
| drains made the difference to Mac
lavish. Let me creep in quiet with
you," he suggested in an earnest I'M
dertone. THE wife's that crabbit
when I've been ava Maybe she'd
not like me taking a nip with you.
| Well, I gave MacTavish the bottle,
not without misgivings, even though
| he had a physique of wire and steel.
And with the glass in his hand he pro-
ceeded TO tell of the three salmons,
over and above the twenty-three sea
! trout, which had blessed the last four
and-twenty hours of his life. They
werena by-ordinar' great fish, We KEN"
/ he said, but there was a saXteen-
punder, and one of eleven punds. I'm
| thinking my lord himself wouldn't have
minded taking any one of the three;
and / didna give more than ten min
utes to the bonniest of them. 1t was
the silver doctor that did for them,
and. mon, this very night it shall do
more still. Wud We like to see me kill
salmon in the stream here?"
He looked so very tipsy that l at
tempted to soOth him. I told him he
would be much better i'm bed, having
first yielded to the wifely attentions
Of Mrs. MacTavish. And then l am
sorry to say he was rude about Mrs.
MacTavish. If he made UP his mind
to get a salmon, whether in the fore
noon. the evening or the night, he was
not the man 10 ask his Wife's leave
nor his masters either. I'm here to
mind the fishing for my master, We
KEN" he said thiekly; but I'm a mon
as we'll as my master, and if / say I'm
going TO get a salmon, Donald Mac
lavish is going to get 1.-THE is that
And it's the silver doctor that1l do it,
the same as with those three other
/ bonnie fish. Mon, ye'd have liked fine
| to see them. 1t was when day was
! breaking over the hills and the heav-
| lest didna cost me eight minutes from
the time I was into him. Bide a wee
and we'll be off together. The lights
too strong yet. they'll see us coming.
! But in half an hour it'll do fine, and
it'll be your fish, We ken. You shall
send it to England TO your friends;
ay, that's how We'll dispose of it, and
no word said to a body"