To her astonishment, Mr. Pritchard began to laugh. He dropped everything and gave his whole attention to it. He laughed till the tears came and the delicate guide boat shook from stem to stern. Presently the germ of his laughing spread, and Gay came down with a sharp attack of it herself. She stopped rowing. Two miles off, a loon, that most exclusive laugher of the North Woods, took fright, dove, and remained under for ten minutes. The young people in the guide boat looked at each other through smarting tears. "I am learning fast," said Gay, "that you count your fish before you catch them, that trout are char, and that Englishmen laugh at other people's jokes." She rowed on. "Don't forget to tell me when you've chosen your fish," she remarked. "You shall help me choose," he said; "I insist. I speak for a three-pounder." "The event of a lifetime!" "Why, Miss Gay," he said, "it's all the event of a lifetime. The Camp, the ride in the motor-boat, the wonderful, wonderful breakfast, water teeming with fish, the woods, and the mountains--millions of years ago it was decreed that you and I should rock a boat with laughter in the midst of New Moon Lake. And yet you speak of a three-pounder as the event of a lifetime! My answer is a defiance. We shall take one _salmo fontinalis_--one wily char. He shall not weigh three pounds; he shall weigh a trifle more. Then we shall put up our tackle and go home to a merry dinner." "Mr. Pritchard," said Gay, "I'll bet you anything you like that you don't take a trout--or a char, if you like--that will weigh three pounds or over. I'll bet you ten to one." "Don't do that," he said; "it's an even shot. What will you bet?" "I'll bet you my prospective dividends for the year," she said, "against----" "My prospective title?" He looked rather solemn, but laughter bubbled from Gay. "It's a good sporting proposition," said Pritchard. "It's a very sound title--old, resonant--and unless you upset us and we drown, tolerably certain to be mine to pay--in case I lose." "I don't bet blindly," said Gay. "What is the title?" "I shall be the Earl of Merrivale," said he; "and if I fail this day to take a char weighing three pounds or over, you will be the Countess of Merrivale." "Dear me!" said Gay, "who ever heard of so much depending on a mere fish? But I don't like my side of the bet. It's all so sudden. I don't know you well enough, and you're sure to lose." "I'll take either end of the bet you don't like," said Mr. Pritchard gravely. "If I land the three-pounder, you become the countess; if I don't, I pay you the amount of your dividends for the year. Is that better?" "Much," smiled Gay; "because, with the bet in this form, there is practically no danger that either of us will lose anything. My dividends probably won't amount to a row of pins, and you most certainly will not land so big a fish."