160 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



that's why she spends best part o' her time lookin' 

 after other people. She was a wusser to me afore 

 that 'ere eel got into her best room, just after it 

 hed bin spruced up for the summer. Old Flint, 

 he has the right o' catchin' all the eels and t'other 

 fish in this part o' the river, an' I works for him. 

 'Tain't much o' pay, but I makes it suit me. I 

 has all the frog-mouthed eels, there ain't none 

 too many of them ; he has all the sharp-nosed 

 silver-bellied uns. 



" People cums for the fishin' here, an' they pays 

 old Flint ; then I puts them over in the punt, an* 

 they pays me fur that. She told him as she'd 

 had her eye on me for some time, an' that I was 

 takin' advantage of him. A nice man old Flint 

 would be to play with. But I believe she was 

 tryin' to make up to him ; he's lost his missus a 

 good bit now. Well, one day she told him that 

 I'd ketched a bushel o' fish with rod and line, and 

 that I'd sold 'em." 



" Had you done that, Tommy ? " 



"Course I had. They was all big bream; I 

 baited that big deep hole close to us for three 

 days afore I started fishin'. I got a lot, but I 



