men,
and two lengths of it, each about eight feet, had been rejected as
unsound. These the gentlemen, colonel included, got behind, and rolled
down into the water. Mr. Perrowne and the fisherman doffed their shoes
and socks, rolled up their trouser legs, and waded in to get the logs in
position as sleepers. Three spars of driftwood, bleached white, were
found along the bank, and were laid over the logs at right angles, and
kept in their places, as were the logs, by stakes hammered into the lake
bottom. Mr. Errol and Mr. Terry produced some planks, saved from the
fire that devoured the stables, and laid them over the erection, making
a substantial pier, that would have been the better of a few spikes to
steady the boards. Mr. Bigglethorpe provided rods and lines, and baited
the hooks for the ladies, with grasshoppers, frogs, crawfish and
minnows. The last were provided by Marjorie. At the fisherman's
suggestion, she had got from Tryphena a useless wire dish-cover that had
lost its handle, a parcel of oatmeal, and a two-quart tin pail. Mr.
Bigglethorpe had fastened a handle cut out of the bush to the dish
cover, thus converting it into a scoop-net. Barefooted, Marjorie stood
in the shallow water, scattering a little oatmeal, when up came a shoal
of minnows eager for the food thus provided. At one fell swoop, the
young fisherwoman netted a dozen of the shiny little creatures, and
transferred them all alive to the tin pail. Mr. Errol had a great mind
to join her in this exciting sport, but was not sure what Mrs.
Carmichael would think of it. The possibility that he might have become
Mr. Coristine's father-in-law also tended to sober the renewer of his
youth. As Marjorie had practically deserted her friend for the minnows,
Mr. Bigglethorpe invited her cousin to accompany him, with Miss Halbert
and Mr. Perrowne, in the scow, which paddled off to try how the fishing
was at the narrows. The colonel did not care to fish; it was too dirty
work for him. Neither did the remaining ladies show any appetite for it;
but Mr. Errol and the veteran manned the lately constructed pier, and
beguiled some bass that came seeking shelter from the sun beneath it.
While the gentlemen were thus engaged, the colonel lying on his back
near Marjorie's fishing ground, indulging in a second cigar, the two
ladies strolled away, followed by Muggins, to look for more flowers.
After they had gone about a hundred yards to the right, the dog ran on
before the