ILL-GOTTEN PLEASURE NO ENJOYMENT. 127

 two and three shillings' worth of hooks! On the
 whole, however, they considered their afternoon's
 fishing by no means a failure.
 After tea, which they all had on the lawn in front
 of the cottage, and for the provision of which Mrs.
 Muffin had distinguished herself by making a much
 appreciated hot cake, the children, girls included,
 rambled down to the water's edge, and there amused
 themselves by making "ducks and drakes" on its
 shining surface. Roger alone did not join in the enter-
 tainment, but stood with his hands in his pockets
 gazing abstractedly over the lake.
 Suddenly, however, he seemed to make up his mind
on the subject which he was considering, and bend-
ing down to Jack, who was a little apart from the
others, he asked him hurriedly if he could give him
a pin.
 Jack, engaged just at that moment in the produc-
tion of a peculiarly successful duck and drake," and
busily employed in watching and counting aloud its
numerous leaps, merely threw Polly's queer pincushion
on the sand by his side, and bade Roger take it.
Without needing to be told a second time, Roger
snatched it up and ran off in the direction of the
house.
 Punctually at the appointed hour Dick stole
quietly into the stable-yard, where he found his