DAPPING FOR TROUT. 55 



again approached the water side. The bumble bee had most effectually 

 scared "Randolph,"' so I walked down to where "Gladstone" had taken 

 up his abode. Nipping the grasshopper with my fingers so as to kill 

 it, I managed to flick it over the bushes towards my friend. It 

 happened to light on the water at the proper place, and I had the 

 pleasure of watching "Gladstone" sail slowly and majestically up to the 

 floating insect, open a huge pink mouth, and swallow it. That was 

 quite good enough for me, and after dinner I retailed to my friend 

 my evening's experiences. 



We were soon busily engaged in hunting up bare hooks and stiff 

 rods. Fortunately for us there were some long cane-bottom fishing 

 rods in the lodge, which evidently had been used in former times for 

 bait fishing ; the joints were indifferent, the whippings rotten, but the 

 rods were, in the main, sound. 



A little waxed thread and varnish soon put them into workable 

 trim, and before going to bed we pledged a parting glass that some 

 of our friends should gain a new experience on the morrow. And so 

 it fell out. We knew that playing fish in such overgrown haunts was 

 out of the question, and that if we had the luck to hook them it would 

 be a question of pull devil, pull baker. Towards evening we met at 

 our trysting-place. Green grasshoppers were numerous, so there was 

 no lack of bait. As I anticipated, " Randolph Churchill's" inquisitiveness 

 and audacity caused him to become our first victim. The bushes were 

 far too thick to let us drop our bait near him in the ordinary manner. 

 Our only chance was to roll the line round our rods, poke it through 

 the bushes, unroll it carefully, dangle it before his nose, and then, if 

 we had the luck to hook him, to give him no law, but to trust to our 

 tackle and to hold on like grim death. 



The next victim that evening was " Bradlaugh," a bold riser, who 

 fought well, and who thoroughly justified his cognomen when on the 

 bank. " Disraeli " was for some time our master ; he knew a trick or 

 two, and was by no means easily beguiled, though often pricked and 

 once lightly hooked. Even his caution was at length overcome, and 

 hardly an evening passed but that one or more of these, relatively 

 speaking, monsters of some 2\ to 5 lb. in weight was landed. 



" Lord Salisbury," however, proved to be a very difficult nut to 



