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their quantities and their quality, and the ice had hardly disappeared, before numberless little boats were launched from the shores, and the lines of the fishermen were dropped into the inmost recesses of its deepest caverns, tempting the unwary animals with every variety of bait that the ingenuity or the art of man had invented. But the slow, though certain adventures with a hook and line were ill-suited to the profusion and impatience of the settlers.-More destructive means were resorted to; and, as the season had now arrived when the bass-fisheries were allowed by the provisions of the law that Judge Temple had procured, the Sheriff declared his intention, by availing himself of the first dark night, to enjoy the sport in person

"And you shall be present, cousin Bess," he added, when he announced this intention, " and Miss Grant, and Mr. Edwards; and I will show you what I call fishing-not nibble, nibble, nibble, as 'duke does when he goes after the salmon-trout. There he will sit for hours, in a broiling sun, or, perhaps, over a hole in the ice, in the coldest days in winter, under the lee of a few bushes, and not a fish will he catch, after all this mortification of the flesh. No, no-give me a good seine that's fifty or sixty fathoms in length, with a jolly parcel of boatmen to crack their jokes the while, and with Benjamin to steer, and let us haul them in by thousands, and I shall call that fishing."

"Ah! Dickon," cried Marmaduke, "thou knowest but little of the pleasure there is in playing with the hook and line, or thou wouldst be more saving of the game. I have known thee to leave fragments enough behind thee, when thou hast headed a night-party on the lake, to feed a halfdozen famishing families."

"I shall not dispute the matter with you, Judge

Temple," said the Sheriff with much dignity; "this night will I go; and I invite the company to attend, and then let them decide between us."

Richard was busy, during most of the afternoon, making his preparations for the important occasion. Just as the light of the setting sun had disappeared, and a new moon had begun to cause faint shadows to be seen on the earth, the fishermen took their departure in a boat, for a point that was situated on the western shore of the lake, at the distance of rather more than half a mile from the village. The ground had become settled, and the walking was good and dry. Marmaduke, with his daughter, her friend, and young Edwards, continued on the high grassy banks at the outlet of the placid sheet of water, watching the dark object that was moving with great rapidity across the lake, until it entered the shade of the western hills, and was lost to the eye. The distance round by land to the point of their destination was a mile, and he observed

"It is time for us to be moving; the moon will be down ere we reach the point, and then the miraculous hauls of Dickon will commence."

The evening was warm, and after the long and dreary winter from which they had just escaped, delightfully invigorating, both to the mind and body. Inspirited by the scene and their anticipated amusement the youthful companions of the Judge followed his steps, as he led them along the shores of the Otsego, and through the skirts of the little village.

"See!" said young Edwards, "they are building their fire already; it glimmers for a moment, and then dies again like the light of a fire-fly."

"Now it blazes like a bonfire ?" cried Eliza

beth; "you can see the figures moving around the light. Oh! I would bet my jewels against the gold beads of Remarkable, that my impatient cousin Dickon had an agency in raising that bright flame; -and see; it begins to fade again, like most of his brilliant schemes."

"Thou hast guessed the truth, Bess," said her father; "he has thrown an armful of brush on the pile, which has burnt out as soon as lighted. But it has enabled them to find a better fuel, for their fire begins to blaze with a more steady flame. It is the true fisherman's beacon now; observe how beautifully it throws its little circle of light on the water!"

The appearance of the fire urged the pedestrians on, for even the ladies had become eager to witness the draught of the seine. By the time they reached the bank, which rose above the low point where the fisherman had landed, the moon had sunk behind the tops of the western pines, and, as most of the stars were obscured by the clouds, there was but little other light, by which to view the scene, than that which proceeded from the large piles of brush, branches, and roots, that had been collected, under the superintendence of Richard. At the suggestion of Marmaduke, his companions paused to listen to the conversation of those below them, and examine the party, for a moment, before they descended to the shore.

The whole group were seated around the fire, on the ground, with the exception of Richard and Benjamin; the former of whom occupied the root of a decayed stump, that had been drawn to the spot as part of their fuel, and the latter was standing, with his arms a-kimbo, so near to the flame, that the smoke occasionally obscured his solemn

visage, as it waved around the pile, in obedience to the light night-airs, that swept gently over the surface of the water.

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Why, look you, Squire," said the Major-domo, "you may call a lake-fish that will weigh twenty or thirty pounds a serious matter; but to a man who has hauled in a shovel-nosed shirk, d'ye see, it's but a poor kind of fishing after all."

"I don't know, Benjamin," returned the Sheriff; "a haul of one thousand Otsego bass, without counting pike, pickerel, perch, bull-pouts, salmon-trouts, and suckers, is no bad fishing, let me tell you. There may be sport in sticking a shark, but what is he good for after you have got him? Now any one of the fish that I have named is fit to set before a king."

"Well, Squire," returned Benjamin, "just listen to the philosophy of the thing. Would it stand to reason, that such fish should live and be catched in this here little pond of water, where it's hardly deep enough to drown a man, as you'll find in the wide ocean, where, as every body knows, that is, every body that has followed the seas, whales and grampuses are to be seen, that are as long as one of them pine trees on yonder mountain ?"

"Softly, softly, Benjamin," said the Sheriff, using a soothing manner, as if he wished to save the credit of his favourite; "why some of the pines will measure full two hundred feet, and even more."

"Two hundred or two thousand, it's all the same thing," cried Benjamin, with an air which manifested that he was not easily to be bullied out of his opinion, on a subject like the present"Haven't I been there, and haven't I seen? I have said that you fall in with whales as long as one of

them there pines; and I'll stand to what I have once said."

During this dialogue, which was evidently but the close of a much longer discussion, the huge frame of Billy Kirby was seen extended on one side of the fire, where he was picking his teeth with the splinters of the chips that were near him, and occasionally shaking his head, with the distrust that was engendered by the marvellous qualities of Benjamin's assertions. It seems that he now thought it time to advance his sentiments on the subject.

"I've a notion," said the wood-chopper, " that there's water in this lake to swim the biggest whale that ever was invented; and, as to the pines, I think I ought to know so'thing consarning them; and I have chopped many a one that was sixty times the length of my helve, without counting the eyes; and I b'lieve, Benny, that if the old pine that stands in the hollow of the Vision Mountain, just over the village, and you may see the tree itself by looking up, for the moon is on its top yet; -well, now I b'lieve, that if that same tree was planted out in the deepest part of the lake, there would be water enough for the biggest ship that ever was built to float over it, without touching its upper branches, I do."

"Did'ee ever see a ship, Master Kirby?" roar ed the steward-" did'ee ever see a ship, man? or any craft bigger than a lime-scow, or a wood-boat, on this here small bit of fresh water?”

"Yes, I have," said the wood-chopper, stoutly; "I can say that I have, and tell no lie."

"Did'ee ever see a British ship, Master Kirby? an English line-of-battle ship, boy? Where away did'ee ever fall in with a regular-built vessel, with starn-post and cut-water, garboard streak and