THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



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II. UP WITH THE LARK. 



The window of our bedroom was left open, and 

 the cool night air, fresh from the rain-wet woods, 

 filled the chamber, so that our sleep was healthy 

 and therefore dreamless and light. At four o'clock 

 the next morning we were broad awake, and look- 

 ing out westward over the fair country. The fields 

 were silver-grey with innumerable raindrops, but 

 the clouds had gone away to the northward, and 

 a grey-blue sky and hazy weather-gleam foretold 

 the coming of a hot day. The breeze came in 

 gentle puffs, bringing to one's nostrils the fra- 

 grance of the roses, and the heavier and richer 

 odour of the meadow-sweet, which, in the meadow 

 yonder, shook its cream- white clusters over the 

 ripening hay. The sparrows twittered and chir- 

 ruped with great industry on the eaves, and the 

 starlings preened themselves on .the dovecote. 



About two hundred yards from the house was 

 a pool, small in size and shallow, but full of carp, 

 which were at all times most difficult to catch. 

 One side of the pool was bounded by the lane, 

 and on the other was a field containing a savage 

 white bull, the terror of all trespassing anglers. 

 All day long the country urchins sat on the lane 

 side of the pool and fished for small carp of two 

 or three inches in length, and their persistent 

 efforts effectually frightened the bigger fish, so that 



