“Ah, yer Reverence, Pentland done him up.”
“What! the gauger?”
“He did, the thief; but maybe he'll sup sorrow for it, afore he's much oulder.”
“And who do you think informed, Barny?”
“Oh, I only wish we knew that, sir.”
“I wish I knew it, and if I thought any miscreant here would become an informer, I'd make an example of him. Well, Barny, on Friday next: but I suppose Ned has a drop still—eh, Barny?”
“Why, sir, we'll be apt to have something stronger nor wather, anyhow.”
“Very well, Barny; your family was always a dacent and spirited family, I'll say that for them; but, tell me, Barny, did you begin to dam the river yet? * I think the trouts and eels are running by this time.”
* It is usual among the peasantry to form, about
Michaelmas, small artificial cascades, called dams,
under which they place long, deep, wicker creels,
shaped like inverted cones, for the purpose of securing
the fish that are now on their return to the large
rivers, after having deposited their spawn in the
higher and remoter streams. It is surprising what a
number of fish, particularly of eels, are caught in
this manner—sometimes from one barrel to three in the
course of a single night!
“The creels are made, yer Reverence, though we did not set them yet; but on Tuesday night, sir, wid the help o' God, we'll be ready.”