Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/27

 warrant him to do good work, and if the lady breaks him she will not be much out of pocket only six dollars and a half."

"Oh, I don't want a cheap thing like that," exclaimed the young lady, who would not take a second look at me after she heard that I was worth so little money. "I want a nice rod."

The storekeeper laid me on the show-case, and brought my friend the split bamboo out for exhibition. He was a splendid looking fellow, and I did not wonder that the young lady went into ecstasies over him, and declared at once that he was just the rod she had long been wishing for. Neither could I resist the temptation to say to him, as he was put back into his case:

"What do you think now of your chances of going among the trout streams and of taking a shy at the lordly salmon! Good-by; but I am sorry for you."

The bamboo was so crest-fallen that he could make no response. He was carried away by his new owner, and I did not see him again until I was almost ready to be laid upon the shelf in my master's closet, to enjoy a long