44 SPRING ANGLING 



by hammering with a stone ; in the other I tied 

 the line two or three times through, so that it 

 would be less likely to be cut, and lo and 

 behold ! I had a glittering pickerel bait. With 

 my heart beating loudly, I approached the water, 

 and looked over to where my pickerel had lain. 

 He wasn't tJiere ! Oh, the throes of disappoint- 

 ment I experienced after all my trouble ! I 

 was on the verge of throwing the whole thing 

 into the stream, and telling him to take it when 

 he next came that way, when, on peering closely 

 again, I caught sight of the cold, malicious, fierce 

 eye of this river pirate from beneath a patch of 

 weeds near where I first saw him ; and in a mo- 

 ment I dropped the glistening bait, not in front 

 of him, for that would have scared him, but just 

 behind, drawing it slowly away. In a second he 

 was on it, with a ferocious rush and a tremendous 

 splash, and I felt at once he had hooked himself. 

 I dared not be severe with him, and you may 

 imagine the tussle I had with no reel and only 

 four yards or so of line. Backwards and forwards 

 he struggled, and I saw that he was securely 

 hooked in the fleshy part of the mustache or 

 movable lip ; and by and by, to shorten my story, 



