BREEDING OF THE TROUT 



followed you these two hours, and not seen a fish stir, neither 

 at your minnow nor your worm. 



Pise. Well Scholar, you must endure worse luck some- 

 time, or you will never make a good Angler. But what say 

 you now? there is a Trout now, and a good one too, if I can 

 but hold him, and two or three turns more will tire him : 

 Now you see he lies still, and the sleight is to land him : 

 reach me that landing-net : so, Sir, now he is mine own, 

 what say you now ? is not this worth all my labour and your 

 patience ? 



VEN. On my word, Master, this is a gallant Trout, what 

 shall we do with him ? 



Pise. Marry, e'en eat him to supper : we '11 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 cheer- 

 ful companion, had sent word he would lodge there to-night, 

 and bring a friend with him. My Hostess has two beds, and 

 I know, you and I may have the best : we '11 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 offence to God or man. 



VEN. 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 smell so : let 's be going, good Master, 

 for I am hungry again with fishing. 



Pise. 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 another, 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 logger-headed Chub ; 

 come, hang him upon that willow twig, and let's be going. 

 But turn out of the way a little, good Scholar, towards yonder 

 high honeysuckle hedge ; there we '11 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 

 meadows. 



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

 last this way a-fishing, and the birds in the adjoining grove 



47 



