PIKE, PERCH, BREAM, AND ROACH 141 



milk added to it. I want my readers to bear 

 in mind that the moss was washed and squeezed 

 every morning, and that fresh milk was then 

 added to it. 



The boy who had surreptitiously borrowed 

 his father's worms so impressed our leader 

 with an account of their wonderful powers in 

 catching fish, owing to the way they had been 

 coddled up, that the enthusiastic angler could 

 hardly sleep at night for thinking of the mar- 

 vellous creatures. Have some of those worms 

 he must, even if he made himself bankrupt for 

 it, which he did for one week, at least, by 

 spending fourpence, which was the whole of his 

 pocket-money ; being further impelled to this 

 extravagance by the worm -borrower's gentle 

 insinuation that "only the big 'uns would snap 

 those milk-sucking worms." 



But when it was found that those who had 

 dug their worms out of the gardens ten minutes 

 before, and put them in a small flower-pot with 

 some dirt earth, we should have said for them 

 to hide in, taking them just as the spade turned 

 them up red worms, or lobs, no matter which 

 had better sport, and that the lobs certainly 

 caught by far the largest perch, that fourpence 

 was considered money thrown away. So much 



