FROM LAND AND PIER 213 



a good hour without getting a solitary bite. I was just giving 

 up in despair when three little urchins, the eldest of whom 

 could not have toddled on this earth for more than ten years, 

 came trotting down the beach. One of them had a penny ball 

 of string ; another a hook tied on gut ; while the third pro- 

 duced three mussels. Twine-makers do not give us much 

 string for a penny ; so the line was very short, and after a 

 stone had been fixed to the end of it and the hook tied on 

 and baited, the most the little fellows could do was to cast 

 their bait a yard or two beyond the point where small waves 

 were breaking on the shore. 



I do not know if my face bore a pitying smile, but I certainly 

 felt that way, and was searching my pockets to see if I had not a 

 piece of string which could be attached to the youngsters' line, 

 when, behold, the eldest raised a scream of delight and hauled 

 in a codling of about two pounds. I was distinctly humiliated, 

 but was not too proud to profit by the lads' experience ; so I 

 quickly reeled in my line and made a fresh cast, placing the 

 paternoster just over the line of little breakers. There the fish 

 were in thousands, I should say, for hardly had the bait reached 

 the bottom before I had a bite. I continued pulling out fish 

 one after the other until I had about a dozen and a half, when 

 I had to return to the town. I think the boys caught two 

 or three more ; but, being thankful for the lesson they had 

 unconsciously given me, I presented them with most of my 

 codlings. 



After that experience, whenever I found the fish were not 

 feeding at the usual distance, I. would wind in a few yards of 

 line ; then wait a minute or two, and if no bite came, wind in a 

 few more yards and wait again ; and so on until the paternoster 

 was brought right up to the shore. This movement of the 

 paternoster was, in fact, a thorough searching of the fishing 

 ground, and it had a secondary advantage, for the slight motion 



