FIN AND FUR ON SURREY HILLS. 79 



took it in his hand and threw it, as he would have 

 done a stone, into the first open space between the 

 weeds near us ; the remainder of the picture-cord 

 lay on the top of the weeds. I had no faith in 

 the proceedings myself, the tackle being so very 

 rough, but my companion evidently had. Those 

 pike had surely never seen a line before ; they 

 must have been the most unsophisticated of the 

 pike family, for, before five minutes had passed 

 away, the picture -cord began to shoot over the 

 top of the weeds at a most rapid rate, and then 

 it stopped. " All right," said my friend ; " he's 

 pouching it. I shall give him ten minutes, and 

 then I'll tickle his gizzard." He did that with a 

 vengeance, jerking the pike sharply enough to pull 

 a donkey up to a standstill. The pike was so 

 alarmed and amazed, never having been served so 

 in his life before, that he sprang clean out of the 

 water like a trout, came down head first into a 

 mass of weeds, and buried himself in them like a 

 pig in straw, 



" You've lost him ! " I cried. 



" Not I," rejoined my friend ; " he's safe enough. 

 Come out of it ! " and with that he hauled a mass 



