CHAPTER IX
PINS AND PORK

“Sure, this is blessed Erin, an’ this the same glen;

The gold is on the whin-bush, the wather sings again:

The Fairy Thorn’s in flower—an’ what ails my heart then?”

Moira O’Neil.

‟WELL—of all the deserters!”

“Is it me?” asked Wally, modestly. He made an enormous stride from a half-submerged stone into the boat, and nearly lost his balance, collapsing in the stern.

“You!” said Jim, steadying the boat, which endeavoured, under the assault, to bury her nose in a muddy bank of rushes. “You, that was going to catch several hundred trout, and instead cleared out——”

“In a plutocratic motor,” said Norah.

“With a bloated aristocrat,” added Jim.