ut the floor.

"And he shall have it," I cried, taking a walking-stick, and for the
next five minutes I was employed trying to guide my prisoner to the
doorway leading into the pit.

I suppose you never tried to drive an eel? No? Well, let me assure you
that pig-driving is a pleasant pastime in comparison. We have it on
good authority that if you want to drive a pig in a particular direction
all you have to do is to point his nose straight and then try to pull
him back by the tail. Away he goes directly.

Try and drive a big thick eel, two feet six inches long, with a
walking-stick, and you'll find it a task that needs an education first.
Put his head straight, and he curves to right or left. Pull his tail,
and he'll turn round and bite you, and hold fast too. Mine turned round
and bit, but it was the walking-stick he seized with his strong jaws,
and it wanted a good shake to get it free.

Every way but the right would that eel squirm and wriggle. I chased him
round grindstones, in and out of water-troughs, from behind posts and
planks, from under benches, but I could not get him to the door; and I
firmly believe that night would have fallen with me still hunting the
slimy wriggling creature if Uncle Bob had not seized it with his hands
after throwing his pocket-handkerchief over its back.

The next instant it was curled up in the silk, writhing itself into a
knot, no doubt in an agony of fear, if eels can feel fear. Then it was
held over the pit, the handkerchief taken by one corner, and I expected
to hear it drop with a splash into the water; but no, it held on, and
though the handkerchief was shaken it was some time before it would quit
its hold of the silk, a good piece of which was tight in its jaws.

At last: an echoing splash, and we turned back to where my Uncles Jack
and Dick were busy with the bands.

"The best day's fishing I ever saw, Cob," cried Uncle Jack. "It was
stupid of us not to drag the pit or the dam before."

"I don't know about stupid," said Uncle Bob. "You see we thought the
bands were stolen or destroyed. We are learning fast, but we don't
understand yet all the pleasant ways of the Arrowfield men."

The rest of the day was spent over the tiresome job of sorting out the
different bands and hanging them on their own special wheels to drain or
dry ready for use, and when this was done there was a feeling of
satisfaction in every breast, for it meant beginning work again, and
U