SMALL WATERS AND TYPICAL DAYS 71 



It was a diverting object lesson after all, though not, 

 perhaps, worth our long drive and disappointment. 

 Here was a pike that had not only after false runs 

 become hooked and lost, but within a quarter of an 

 hour had taken the bait which had been fatal, while 

 the other was still sticking to the roof of its serrated 

 interior. Another notable circumstance was that the 

 float had never fairly disappeared when the hook was 

 lost ; ergo, the gimp 'must have been bitten through 

 at the first chop. 



The day was waning, it was three o'clock, and it 

 was now freezing splendidly. The rings of the rods 

 were being filled with ice, though the sun, rapidly 

 declining, was still bright. On the way down to the 

 carriage which awaited us near the boat-house, we 

 experimentally gave our first stopping place a final 

 trial, and my friend was fortunate in finding and 

 catching a pike at his last cast. Even as we stood 

 there this small free space became imperceptibly 

 circumscribed ; before I could prepare a bait for my 

 own rod ice was appearing, and in the course of 

 twenty minutes a film was upon the entire surface. 

 Like reasonable men we accepted the token as order 

 to march, wound up, stowed our goods away, and 

 got clear of the lanes into the high road before the 

 light had quite departed. 



