but I have lived long enough to see there is nothing in
them, and so I hope your Grace will."

[5] Johnson's Life of Waller, wherein the poet is stated to have
been born March 3.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TROUT TICKLING IN IRELAND.

What will our _ticklish_ correspondent, W.H.H. say to this?

"Kniveing trouts" (they call it tickling in England) is good sport. You go
to a stony shallow at night, a companion bearing a torch; then stripping
to the thighs and shoulders, wade in; grope with your hands under the
stones, sods, and other harbourage, till you find your game, then grip him
in your "knieve," and toss him ashore.

I remember, when a boy, carrying the splits for a servant of the family,
called Sam Wham. Now Sam was an able young fellow, well-boned and willing;
a hard headed cudgel player, and a marvellous tough wrestler, for he had a
backbone like a sea-serpent; this gained him the name of the Twister and
Twiner. He had got into the river, with his back to me, was stooping over
a broad stone, when something bolted from under the bank on which I stood,
right through his legs. Sam fell with a great splash upon his face, but in
falling, jammed whatever it was against the stone. "Let go, Twister,"
shouted I, "'tis an otter, he will nip a finger off you."--"Whisht,"
sputtered he, as he slid his hand under the water; "May I never read a
text again, if he isna a sawmont wi' a shouther like a hog!"--"Grip him by
the gills, Twister," cried I.--"Saul will I!" cried the Twiner; but just
then there was a heave, a roll, a splash, a slap like a pistol-shot; down
went Sam, and up went the salmon, spun like a shilling at pitch and toss,
six feet into the air. I leaped in just as he came to the water; but my
foot caught between two stones, and the more I pulled the firmer it stuck.
The fish fell in a spot shallower than that from which he had leaped. Sam
saw the chance, and tackled to again: while I, sitting down in the stream
as best I might, held up my torch, and cried fair play, as shoulder to
shoulder, throughout and about, up and down, roll and tumble, to it they
went, Sam and the salmon. The Twister was never so twined before. Yet
through crossbuttocks and capsizes innumerable, he still held on; now
haled through a pool; now haling up a bank; now heels over head; now head
over heels; now head and heels together; doubled up in a corner; but at
last