THE COMPLETE ANGLER 289 



with the trout, and had come in and gone out 

 with him. 



Pise. Oh no ! assure yourself a grayling is a winter 

 fish ; but such a one as would deceive any but such as 

 know him very well indeed ; for his flesh, even in his worst 

 season, is so firm, and will so easily calver, that in plain 

 truth he is very good meat at all times : but in his perfect 

 season (which, by the way, none but an overgrown gray- 

 ling will ever be), I think him so good a fish, as to be little 

 inferior to the best trout that ever I tasted in my life. 



VIAT. Here's another skipjack ; and I have raised 

 five or six more at least while you were speaking. Well, 

 go thy way, little Dove ! thou art the finest river that ever 

 I saw, and the fullest of fish. Indeed, Sir, I like it so well, 

 that I am afraid you will be troubled with me once a year, 

 so long as we two live. 



Pise. I am afraid I shall not, Sir : but were you once 

 here a May or a June, if good sport would tempt you, 

 I should then expect you would sometimes see me ; for 

 you would then say it were a fine river indeed, if you had 

 once seen the sport at the height. 



VIAT. Which I will do, if I live, and that you please 

 to give me leave. There was one, and there another. 



Pise. And all this in a strange river, and with a fly 

 of your own making ! why what a dangerous man are 

 you ! 



VIAT. I, Sir : but who taught me ? and as Damaetas 

 says by his man Dorus, so you may say by me, 



If any man such praises have, 



What then have I, that taught the knave ? * 



But what have we got here ? a rock springing up in the 

 middle of the river ! this is one of the oddest sights that 

 ever I saw. 



Pise. Why, Sir, from that pike f that you see 



* Sidney's Arcadia. 



t It is a rock, in the fashion of a spire-steeple, and almost as big. 

 100 j 



