“‘Out on Blackstone,’ she exclaimed; ’what do I care for Blackstone, whose bones have been mouldering in the grave for more than a hundred years, for what I know.  Don’t talk to me about Blackstone.’

“’But, my dear, you are my wife, and Blackstone says’—­

“’I don’t care a fig what Blackstone says.  If I am your wife, I am my mother’s daughter, and my brother’s sister, and Tommy’s mother, and there are four distinct individualities all centered in myself.’

“‘But,’ said I again, ’Blackstone says’—­

“‘Confound that Blackstone,’ she exclaimed; ’I do believe he has driven the wits out of the man’s head.  Now, look you, Mr. W——­, you invited me to ride with you; you now say I am nobody.  Very well.  If nobody leaves you, I suppose you won’t be without company, for somebody certainly left home with you this morning, and has rode with you thus far.  So, good-bye, Mr. W——­; success to your fishing, Mr. W——­,’ and she struck into a gallop towards home.

“‘Hallo!’ said I, ’I give up the point.  I take back all I said. Culpa mea, my good wife.  If Blackstone does say’—­

“‘Not a word more about Blackstone,’ said she, shaking her whip, half serious half playfully, at me; ’if I go with you, I go as somebody—­a legal entity.’

“‘Very well,’ said I, ‘we’ll drop the argument.’

“’Not the argument, but the fact, Mr. W——­; and admit that Blackstone was a goose, and that his law, like his logic, is all nonsense when measured by the standard of common sense and practical fact.  Admit that a woman, when she becomes a wife does not become a mere nonentity, or I leave you to journey alone.’

“’Very well, my dear, let us see if we cannot compromise this matter.  Suppose we allow his philosophy to stand as a general truth, making you an exception.  We’ll say that wives in general are nobody, but that you shall be exempt from the general rule, and be considered always hereafter, and as between ourselves, as somebody.’

“You see the shrewdness of my proposition.  Firstly, it saved Blackstone; secondly, it saved me, let me down easy; and thirdly, it appealed to the womanly vanity of my wife, and it took.

“‘Oh, well,’ she said, as she brought her pony alongside of me, and we jogged along cosily together, ’I see no objection to that.  Other wives can take care of themselves.  But this compromise, as between us, Mr. W——­, must be a finality.  No Nebraska traps, Mr. W——.  No Kansas bills hereafter.  It must be a finality, mind.’

“‘Very well,’ said I; and a robin that was building its nest on a limb that hung over the road, paused in its labors, and burst into song, and the burden of its lay seemed to be a compromise, which, in truth, should be a FINALITY.

“We were successful in our fishing, and we followed the old-fashioned custom as to bait.  We discarded the fly, using only the angle-worm.  At the foot of the ripples; under the old logs; where the water went whirling under the cavernous banks; in the eddies; among the driftwood; everywhere, we found trout—­not large, none weighing over six ounces, and few less than three.  We caught my basket full in less then two hours, and then rode home.  It was a day of enjoyment to us, you may be sure.