EYES AND NO EYES 33 
meadow-sweet, alders, and loose strife do not enter 
into the composition of hay, the mowers have simply 
cut as far as the tangle, leaving that as it was. I 
know what I am about to suffer before I enter it ; 
for I have left off smoking, and the day is what the 
people in and about the fields call a dead-hot day. 
Not a breath of air is stirring and the ' stouts ' bite 
most ferociously. At this time birds and fish revel in 
insect food ; it drops down on the water or skims 
over the surface, and the fish lazily gulp it down ; 
in fact they are gorged with it. 
I have entered the tangle at the thinnest part, for 
I wish once more to confirm something that I have 
stated elsewhere, namely, the pike watching for 
young water birds. If I could see that every day I 
should not tire of watching it, for the birds know of 
their danger, and guard against it as well as they can. 
Not many yards I have crept along, parting the tangle 
gently to right and left, without making a rustle, getting 
the backs of my hands covered with midges, whose 
bites I bear somehow ; then I drop down and crawl 
to the edge, looking through a rush tuft which I 
part for the purpose, and not a yard from me I see a 
pike not a large one, for no large fish are here, they 
do not thrive in this pure spring water. From two 
to three pounds weight will do, but nothing over 
D 
