154: THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



Come, hostess ! dress it presently ; and get us 

 what other meat the house will afford ; and give us 

 some of your best barley-wine, the good liquor that 

 our honest forefathers did use to drink of; the drink 

 which preserved their health, and made them live so 

 long, and io do so many good deeds. 



Peter. O'my word ! this Trout is perfect in season. 

 Come, I thank you, and here is a hearty draught to 

 you, and to all the brothers of the angle wheresoever 

 they be, and to my young brother's good fortune to- 

 morrow : J will furnish him with a rod, if you will 

 furnish him with the rest of the tackling ; we will set 

 him up and make him a fisher. 



And I will tell him one thing for his encouragement, 

 that his fortune hath made him happy to be scholar to 

 guch a master ; a master that knows as much, both of the 

 nature and breeding of fish as any man, and can also 

 tell him as well, how to catch and cook them, from 

 the Minnow to the Salmon, as any that I ever met 

 withal. 



Pise. Trust me, brother Peter ! I find my scholar 

 to be so suitable to my own humour, which is to be free 

 and pleasant and civilly merry, that my resolution 

 is to hide nothing that I know from him. Believe me, 

 scholar ! this is my resolution ; and so here's to you a 

 hearty draught, and to all that love us and the honest 

 art of angling., 



Ten. Trust me, good master! you shall not sow 

 your seed in barren ground ; for I hope to return you 

 an increase answerable to your hopes ; but, however, 

 you shall find me obedient, ami thankful, and service- 

 able to my best ability. 



Pise. 'Tis enough, honest scholar ! come, let's to 

 supper. Come, my friend Coridon, this Trout looks 

 lovely ; it was twenty-two inches when it was taken ; 

 and the belly of it looked, some part of it, as yel- 

 low as a marigold, and, part of it, as white as a 

 lily ; and yet, methinks, it looks better in this good 

 sauce. 



Cor. Indeed, honest friend! it looks well, and 

 tastes w r ell ; I thank you for it, and so doth my friend 

 Peter, or else he is to blame. 



