My Lady Caprice

Book Excerpt: ...a hole in its stomach--they're in there.""Reginald!" called Lisbeth."Up stream or down?""That way," he answered, pointing vaguely down stream; and with a nod that brought the yellow curls over his eyes he scampered off."Along the river," I repeated, "in a big, fat tree with a lot of stickie-out branches!" It sounded a trifle indefinite, I thought--still I could but try. So having packed up my rod I set out upon the search. It was strange, perhaps, but nearly every tree I saw seemed to be either "big" or "fat"--and all of them had "stickie-out" branches. Thus the sun was already low in the west, and I was lighting my fifth pipe when I at length observed the tree in question. A great pollard oak it was, standing upon the very edge of the stream, easily distinguishable by its unusual size and the fact that at some time or another it had been riven by lightning. After all, the Imp's description had been in the main correct; it was "fat," immensely fat: and I hu...