t strain occurred, the line divided about two feet above the
float, the wand gave a smart rebound, and poor Harry, the picture of
disappointment, stood with a short piece of line waving about at the end
of his stick, gazing woefully after his lost fish.

"Oh--oh--oh--h--h!" groaned Philip and Fred together, "what a pity!"

Harry continued to look most rueful, but said nothing.

"It must have been a jack," said Philip. "What a big one! Why didn't
you pull it out when I told you?"

"How could I," said Harry, "when it was dragging so?"

"I _am_ sorry," said Fred; "it _must_ have been a great stickleback to
pull the line in half."

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the cousins, "it wasn't a stickler. They never
grow any bigger than these."

"Look! look!" said Fred, pointing to something that was bobbing up and
down in the pond, "there's Harry's floater."

"So there is," said Harry; "perhaps it will come in close enough to get
hold of."

But, instead of coming in any closer, the little coloured cork kept
working away towards a deep, dark-looking part, right under a large
beech-tree, whose arms hung over that portion of the pond.

"Get up the tree, Hal," said Philip, "and creep along that bough.
You'll get it then."

"No, don't," said Fred, "you'll fall in; I'm sure you will. Don't, pray
don't," he continued, as Harry ran towards the tree.

"I shan't fall," said Harry; "don't you be a goose. I've climbed harder
trees than that, haven't I, Phil?"

"I should think so," said Philip; "but don't go too far, Hal, so as to
get in, for it's ever so deep there!"

"All right," said Harry; "give me a bump up."

Philip laid hold of his brother's leg, and gave him a lift just as he
grasped the tree with both arms, and then, taking advantage of the
inequalities of the bark with his boots, Harry managed to climb slowly
and laboriously to where the tree forked, and the branch reached forth
from the parent stem over the deep pool, while Fred stood half aghast at
what seemed to him the most daring act he ever beheld.

"Oh! take care," he exclaimed, looking quite pale, while the palms of
his hands grew moist and hot with excitement.

"I'm all right," said Harry, creeping slowly out upon the branch; and
then, seating himself astride, he began to work himself out over the
water, while the bough quivered and bent at every movement. "Can you
see it, Phil?" said the adventurer. "Just under the bough, now, and
coming nearer. It's gon