174 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



\ * 





" I say," exclaimed Viator, " what are we to do 

 if you hook a big pike ? " 



" Bring the boat up into the wind as soon as 

 you can," replied Piscator, raising his rod so that 

 the bait might spin close to the top as we were 

 passing over the weeds. 



We dodged in and out of the islands, admiring 

 the grand old church on its wooded hill, sailed 

 past the Oatley woods, which resounded with the 

 busy tapping of a woodpecker, past the terraces of 

 the Hall gardens, by the park where the drinking 

 deer stared at us, large-eyed, and a stoat was busy 

 hunting the rabbit burrows, and then we came to 

 a place where the weed that pest the anacharis 

 came to within a foot of the surface. 



" Haul in your sheet ! " cried Piscator, " and 

 take us quickly over this part." Viator obeyed, 

 and we skimmed quickly over the green tresses of 

 weed that undulated beneath our keel. We could 

 see the spoon-bait spinning and glittering about 

 six inches below the surface, and every now and 

 then jumping out with a noisy skip. Just before 

 we came to where the boat-houses peep from the 

 shelter of the giant trees, the boat passed over a 

 clear space between the weeds, and immediately 

 there was such a rush and splash in the water 

 as startled us considerably. We could see the 

 mottled flank of a goodly pike as he seized the 

 spoon in his jaws, and turned again into the weeds, 

 which parted hastily before him. 



