62 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



beyond doubt, and can teach him the four cardinal 

 points with a few twists of my arm. You see now 

 how submissively he comes to land, and turns his 

 broad, starry-side uppermost upon the channel. Four 

 pounds and a half is his weight, barring three ounces, 

 and a lovelier trout seldom kissed the shore. 



Otter. "We must have him at supper an hour hence. 

 That black beetle of yours, Leister, is a witch ! I 

 have twirled a minnow over this hole fifty times, 

 and not shaken a single fin. It will be long ere 

 it get another such resident as this ! What an ogre 

 the fellow must have been to travelling par and the 

 young wanderers of its own species ! How startled 

 they would be when he dashed after them, with his 

 grim jaws horribly expanded ! Methinks I behold 

 the swarms floundering on these shallows opposite, 

 earnest to escape from the inexorable cannibal. It 

 is not a straggler he seizes, but the plumpest and 

 foremost of the shoal a nimble, silver-sided water- 

 pet, which one would have imagined could beat him 

 hollow in the chase. But my rod is idle, and time 

 Hies. I shall only beat down this pool with my 

 minnow, and give over. 



Leister. It is almost time to do so. This dew is 

 falling to some purpose, and I have no wish to be 

 drenched altogether. "What animal is that moving 

 among these rushes ? You hear it, Tom ? 



Otter. Ay, Jack ; it is an otter, or I mistake. He 

 is at some distance from the water, and had we 



