140 IN THE GREEN LEAF 



colouring and condition it was as a perfect 

 peacock among fish. 



It seems to my memory but a short time 

 since three or four schoolboys made a certain 

 willow-shaded brook their only fishing-place ; 

 our leisure time, morning, noon, and night, 

 at least until bed-time, was passed in healthy 

 amusement during the fishing seasons ; four 

 confirmed young fishers, each fishing, I re- 

 member, in his own way. Our rods were cut, 

 of course, from the pollard willows. Then, too, 

 the manoeuvring of it all ; the slipping behind 

 the trees opposite the perch holes, to find out 

 if they were at home. For we did not trust to 

 chance work, and the question was soon settled, 

 for if they were at home no roach could wriggle 

 from under a stone on the shallows without a 

 perch making a dash for him. 



We all fished with worms, but each lad had 

 his pet theory it was nothing more as to the 

 best kind of worms for the job in hand. The 

 oldest of the lot had, by parting with some of 

 his very limited pocket-money, bribed another 

 boy to get him some of his father's fishing- 

 worms brandlings. These had been well 

 scoured that is, kept in damp moss thoroughly 

 washed, and with a couple of spoonsful of new 



