CHAPTER XII. 



BOTTOM FISHING FOR LABEO. 



' Bait the hook well, ami the fish will bite." — Mrcn ADO. 



Suppose we try a little bottom fishing just for a change. 

 " Variety's charming : " we have it on the old indisputable authority 

 of the copybook. And the swan-quill is not without its charm. 

 There it sits elegant and upright in the water, like a sprightly little 

 water-nymph in its element, on the very tip-toe of expectation, and 

 ready to give you the earliest hint of the slightest flirtation going 

 on with your bait down below. You feel you have a friend in 

 that quill, it will tell you faithfully of every move made against you 

 in the dark depths below, and you have a conviction you may trust 

 it implicity. In cautious silence your little nymph makes mute 

 gestures to you, by a code of her own, like tbe signs of the 

 needle speaking to you of the man at the other end of the wire. 

 Mind you are quick to read her aright, for your nymph is true as 

 steel, and will tell you all, if you can only follow her signals. 

 There! she made the slightest shade of a bow; some one has 

 entered the room, shall we say just smelt your bait. Again she 

 bows, courtseys, now more and more rapidly, now she is quite 

 excited over it. They're off, and she lias disappeared after them. 

 Strike instanter, not roughly, but rapidly. Ha! it's you is it? I 

 thought as much. But mind, mind what you are about, you have 

 only tine-drawn gut, and a light rod, and seemingly a stout part] al 

 the other end. Out goes the line oll'the reel, not ver\ fast certainly, 

 nor very far, still the old alderman will have it, and there's no 

 denying him. lie tights long and persistently though not furiously. 

 Stick to him, keep bearing on him all you dare, but gingerly, 

 gingerly. What, no signsof my poor little faithful nymph, yet still 

 down in the depths keeping an eye on that fat fellow? Ah, up 

 she shows at last, one is quite glad to see her little face again. 



