I2O Summer 



line he was off and away. I felt too dispirited to try 

 another, and my belief in the voracity of the pike was 

 greatly shaken. I grew desperate, and seriously 

 meditated asking the keeper to kill a pike for me with 

 the net, which I was prepared to affirm was my friend 

 at the willow-tree. I reserved that, however, as the 

 last resource of a baffled and beaten lover. 



My next effort was with a minnow. At first I 

 tried to follow the keeper's directions and work it 

 about in the neighbourhood of the weeds, but as the 

 only result of this was that my line caught on the 

 bottom, I flung it in with a cork float. This time I 

 imagined that I was really to be successful, for as I 

 lay and watched, down with a strong long pull went 

 the cork. My hands shook with excitement as I 

 seized the rod and felt a weight at it such as I had 

 never felt before. With a strong effort, I struggled 

 to remember all I had read and heard about running 

 a great fish, and most warily and cautiously set about 

 landing the monster. But he wouldn't run. When I 

 pulled he put a great stress on the line, when I gave 

 him his way he did not move more than a few yards. 

 This did not last long, for if he would not ' play ' I 

 thought the sooner I got him out the better, so man 

 against fish we both pulled, with the consequence that 

 I proved the stronger and to my infinite disgust suc- 

 ceeded in placing upon the greensward a monstrous 

 eel ! I felt hurt. The denizens of the deep seemed 

 to be having a small joke at me. Nevertheless, I tried 



