WILD PASTURES 



will lose your eel, for he is simply testing 

 you. He has hold of the very bottom 

 of that hook, below point and barb, and 

 if you pull you pull it out of his mouth 

 without hooking him. Then in cynical 

 glee he '11 wag himself deeper into his 

 cavern beneath the stones, and that is 

 the last of him. You may fish the pool 

 for a week before he will forget his 

 caution and try another angle- worm. If, 

 however, nothing rouses his suspicions 

 the bob will gradually sink lower till it 

 is more than half submerged, hang there 

 for a little, give another sag downward, 

 and so by degrees be drawn cautiously 

 under. Your eel is cannily carrying the 

 hook down into his cavern, where he 

 may finish his meal at leisure. Now is 

 the crucial moment. He must not be al- 

 lowed to get in among the stones, for 

 even if your strike hooks him he will 

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