rted
younger--but still I landed ninth. Now I'm principal of the new college
that ---- endowed, and I have a very good thing indeed."

So my friend, the rabbit-catcher, became a successful man, and, I am
sure, I wished him joy.

THE GIANTS.

In passing along the shores of the bay, on evenings when the water was
smooth, you could hear a succession of dull thuds like the sound of
distant guns. Looking to eastward you saw a dark semicircular streak on
the water, and inside this streak a coble glided slowly hither and
thither. One man rowed gently, letting his oars drop into the water with
a slight splash, that could be heard nevertheless a long way off. The
sweeps were so long that the rower could not scull in the ordinary way,
but crossed his arms and held the handle of the right sweep in his left
hand, and _vice versa_. In the stern of the boat stood a man of gigantic
size. At intervals he heaved up a great tiller into the air and brought
it down with all his strength; he then gathered himself for another
effort while the split end of the tiller floated on the water; then came
another strong muscular effort, and then another resounding splash. If
the boat drew near the brown rocks the blows of the tiller would startle
a piper or a curlew; a long note of warning would pierce the stillness,
and a wailing answer came from the next point; then a shrill clamour
passed all round the bay, and the birds skimmed towards the island like
flights of dark arrows.

The black streak on the water was made by the cork floaters of a net,
for the men in the coble were engaged in catching sea-trout. When the
tide has flowed for some time, there is a general stir among the fish.
First the dainty gobies come forward as vanguard; then come the pretty
fish that the men call sea-minnows; then the dark shadows of the
flounders fly swiftly over the sandy floor, and the dogcrabs sidle along
in a very lively manner. As the foam creeps further and further in the
larger fishes come from the deep water. Great congers with their ugly
manes and villanous eyes wind in and out the rocky channels, committing
assaults on smaller fishes as they come. The red rock cod leaves his
stony hollows and swims over the sandy places, looking for soft crabs,
or for his favourite food, the luscious crass. Last of all comes the
beautiful sea-trout, skirmishing forward with short rushes, and
sometimes making a swirl near the surface of the water. The fishermen