Cuthbert awoke with a start and rolled over contentedly in the soft mud at the bottom. of the pond. Then he moved up to the surface of the pond to have look round, The sun was high in the heavens on this lovely October morning, Cuthbert had over slept himself. Well, we must forgive him; as the night before he had been up very late, at Caroline Carp's coming-of-age party.
And now he came to think about he was not feeling very well day, too many good things to eat 3 am.
With one more look about him. he was preparing to dive down and see if a little breakfast would taste good or not, when he caught sight of two men walking towards the pond.
Men! With a flick of hu tail Cuthbert "beat it" for safety.
Slowly he moved about at the bottom of the pond, tasting the different weeds, but none of them tasted right. Then he realized that his head ached. These late nights! He settled down to sulk, Other fish came by, and stopped for a chat, but Cuthbert was cross and very short with them. "You need
off, pill old man," they said and swam Then Cuthbert noticed on the soft mud some little round objects lying in a row, he went to examine them, they were light brown, and smelt good. "Pill," said Guthbert to He ate one; quite nice; made of bran; try another; why not a third?
But the third one was Cuthbert's undoing; like a jab from a knife, something sharp pricked his mouth, and be felt as if his jaw were being tugged off. Then he felt himself lifted up, and saw a string was attached to that pain in his jaw. His fighting instincts were at once aroused, and putting out all his, strength, he fought and fought, to break that line. Gallantly " he struggled to got to a post, there were many in the pool, so as to snap the Jing round one—he remembered his old father had told him he had escaped the fisherman's net by doing that on more than one occasion. But luck was against him; the line was firmly played in, " net put under him, and he found, himself out of the water, plunging about in the net.
Then a voice spoke, "A carp, by Jove it's a caup, over four pounds I should think, what a pretty ch Gently the hook was taken from his mouth, and he began to fest faint. Next he felt himself put into a tin, and there was water in it, How angerly he let it flow through his gills.
But he was caught, he Cuthbert Carp, caught to be cooked for some one's' dinner.
He thought over the injustice of it all, as he felt himself being carried along in the tin.
Then a strange thing happened. The tin was opened and he was let out, olit into a big white sort of basin, "Quickly he swam round it, bumping his nose against the sides. No, there was no escape. No weeds, no'soft mud, nothing ' but whi walls. Prison—why, and what had he done? He would not stay. in prison. With a mighty leap, he sprang out.of the prison. But he up and put back, and said, "Get me a mosquito net, this carp jumped right out of the' bath."
So the net was put over, some jerumbs were dropped in for him, and Cuthbert was left to think, And he thought and thought. When would they Kill him? Why keep him like this? Would he ever see the outside world again? Savagely he swam round and round the bath, Until, tired out, he lay quite still and fried to sleep and forget his troubles.
How long he had been there he did not know, when a light woke him, and men's voices again. The net was removed and the men suid, "Isn't he a beauty, look at the colours in his tail." Down came a hand to stroke him. This was too much, and swiftly he started his round of the prison agi Then a voice said, "When are you going to put him into your pond?"
"Now" was the answer.
"Wrap him in a wet towel then, that's the best way of carrying him, some one advised.
This was really too much. Cuthbert felt more hands trying to catch him, Off he started again, he would not be caught, even if it meant another big jump, and jump he did over the end of the bath and on to the bathroom floor.
Luckily he lauded on the towel, and was quickly rolled up in it.
Once more he felt himself being along, he felt the cool night air, it was dark, no sun to scorch h Then he was put down, and the towel was opened out.
There he lay on his side, and the men looked for a moment at him—then—like flash he slid into the 1 That was his first thought, The en turned away from pond.
He'll be all right ther said one of them, "better than in the other pond, there are plenty of weeds and plants, and we feed the fishes every day."
As he said this, two reproachful ttle tuees looked at him from the fox eTANDARD OF EXCELLENCT)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.