THE ANGLER AND HUNTSMAN 23 



Piscator Many, e'en eat him to supper; we'll go to 

 my hostess from whence we came; she told me as I was 

 going out of door, that my brother Peter, a good angler and 

 a cheerful companion, had sent word that he would lodge 

 there tonight, and bring a friend with him. My hostess 

 has two beds, and I know you and I may have the best; 

 we'll rejoice with my brother Peter and his friend, tell 

 tales or sing ballads, or make a catch, or find some harmless 

 sport to content us and pass away a little time, without of- 

 fense to God or man. 



Venator A match, good master; let's go to that 

 house; for the linen looks white and smells of lavender, 

 and I long to lie in a pair of sheets that smells so. Let's 

 be going, good master, for I am hungry again with fishing. 



Piscator Nay, stay a little, good scholar. I caught 

 my last trout with a worm; now I will put on a minnow, 

 and try a quarter of an hour about yonder trees for anoth- 

 er; and so walk towards our lodging. Look you, scholar, 

 thereabout we shall have a bite presently or not at all. 

 Have with you sir ! o' my word I have hold of him. Oh, it is a 

 great loggerheaded chub; come hang him upon that wil- 

 low twig, and let's be going. But turn out of the way a 

 little, good scholar, towards yonder high honeysuckle 

 hedge; there we'll sit and sing whilst this shower falls 

 so gently upon the teeming earth, and gives yet a sweeter 

 smell to the lovely flowers that adorn these verdant mead- 

 ows. 



Look, under that broad beech-tree I sat down, when I 

 was last this way a-fishing. And the birds in the adjoin- 

 ing grove seemed to have a friendly contention with an 

 echo, whose dead voice seemed to live in a hollow tree, near 

 to the brow of that primrose hill. There I sat viewing the 

 silver streams glide silently towards their centre, the tem- 

 pestuous sea; yet sometimes opposed by rugged roots and 

 pebble-stones, which broke their waves and turned them 

 into foam. And sometimes I beguiled time by viewing the 



