Pond Life 
when you walk about the bank, and 
know perfectly well that you are there. 
Then, when they hear a big splash and 
see a large hook with a wriggling worm 
on it, or a piece of bread, tied on to a 
length of coarse string, come down 
through the water, they either swim 
away at once to some other place where 
they will be undisturbed, or they come 
round and laugh at it among themselves. 
‘What a duffer that chap up there must 
be,’ they say to one another, ‘if he ex- 
pects to catch ws with a thing like that !’ 
I] have watched people using a float as 
big as a small pumpkin, painted a bright 
red or blue, in water about two feet deep. 
Then they wonder why they don’t catch 
anything, and declare that there are no 
fish in the river. Why, their float is 
enough to frighten a fish a hundred 
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