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, and
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 stretched
fairly on his back, and foaming for rage and disappointment; while the
victorious salmon, slapping the stones with his tail, and whirling the
spray from his shoulders at every roll, came boring and snoring up the
ford. I tugged and strained to no purpose; he flashed by me with a
snort, and slid into the deep water. Sam now staggered forward with
battered bones and peeled elbows, blowing like a grampus, and cursing
like nothing but himself. He extricated me, and we limped home.
Neither rose for a week; for I had a dislocated ankle, and the Twister
was troubled with a broken rib. Poor Sam! he had his brains discovered
at last by a poker in a row, and was worm's meat within three months;
ye