INTERIOR OF A POOL ON THE RIVER. 97 



This very fictitious chapter is evidently the joint compo- 

 sition of Harry Hackle and Bill May -fly, who appear 

 to have written it on the day of the competition, and 

 while watching, in company with Tim Gaff, an array of 

 pike trimmers floating along the reedy margins of Loch 



. Their success was limited, but they professed 



to have derived considerable amusement from the 

 number of nibbles they encountered, and which Tom 

 Otter thought fit, greatly to their wrath and vexation, 

 to attribute to one small-headed, but particularly 

 hungry eel. 



