ome of the fish?"

"The net has been improperly drawn," observed Mr. Adolphus; "I myself
saw four or five large carp just before it was dragged ashore!"

"Better fling you in, master 'Dolphus, by way of bait!" ejaculated our
friend the miller; "I've seen jacks in this pond that would make no
more bones of swallowing a leg or an arm of such an atomy as you, if
they did not have a try at the whole body, than a shark would of bolting
down Punch in the show; as to carp, everybody that ever fished a pond
knows their tricks. Catch them in a net if you can. They swim round and
round, just to let you look at 'em, and then they drop plump into the
mud, and lie as still and as close as so many stones. But come, Mr.
Tomkins," continued honest John, addressing the butler, "we'll try
again. I'm minded that we shall have better luck this time. Here are
some brave large tench, which never move till the water is disturbed; we
shall have a good chance for them as well as for the jacks. Now, steady
there, you in the boat Throw her in, boys, and mind you don't draw too
fast!" So to work they all went again.

All was proceeding prosperously, and the net, evidently well filled with
fish, was dragging slowly to land, when John Stokes shouted suddenly
from the other side of the pond--"Dang it, if that unlucky chap, master
'Dolphus there, has not got hold of the top of the net! He'll pull it
over. See, that great jack has got out already. Take the net from him,
Tom! He'll let all the fish loose, and tumble in himself, and the water
at that part is deep enough to drown twenty such mannikins. Not that I
think drowning likely to be his fate--witness that petition business,"
muttered John to himself in a sort of parenthesis. "Let go, I say, or
you will be in. Let go, can't ye?" added he, in his loudest tone.

And with the word, Mr. Adolphus, still struggling to retain his hold of
the net, lost his balance and fell in, and catching at the person next
him, who happened to be Mrs. Deborah, with the hope of saving himself,
dragged her in after him.

Both sank, and amidst the confusion that ensued, the shrieks and sobs
of the women, the oaths and exclamations of the men, the danger was
so imminent that both might have been drowned, had not Edward Thornly,
hastily flinging off his coat and hat, plunged in and rescued Mrs.
Deborah, whilst good John Stokes, running round the head of the pond as
nimbly as a boy, did the same kind office for his prime a