"Nowt to boast aboot.

He gied me a battle, I'll admit, but he had nae chance frae the first----" And then we both collapsed and began to roar wi' laughter.

And we agreed that we'd tell no fish stories to one another after that, but only to others, and that we'd always mak' the other fellow tell the size of his fish before we gave the weighing of ours.

That's the only safe rule for a fisherman who's telling of his catch, and there's a tip for ye if ye like.
Still and a' we caught us no fish, and whiles we talked we'd stopped rowing, until the boat drifted into the weeds and long grass that filled one end of the loch.

We were caught as fine as ye please, and when we tried to push her free we lost an oar.