210 WOODLAND, MOOR, AND STREAM 



Failing to get any answer riled him up to a burst- 

 ing-point, and caused him to bestow titles on us that 

 we certainly did not merit. The oars were grasped, 

 our boat shot out into the stream, as he once more 

 shouted out : ' Confound you ! what do you want ? ' 



* Your nose,' was the reply shouted back, * and 

 when I get it I shall wear a blue veil.' 



Our boat then shot through his part of the river 

 at top speed, and we never tried to get his pike again. 

 Ah ! we were young in those days ! 



The perch is a handsome fish when in good condi- 

 tion ; amid favourable surroundings he runs from two 

 to three pounds in weight. Much heavier ones than 

 this have been caught, but they are exceptions to the 

 general run. He is a bold biter, and not particular in 

 his food. The schoolboys hold him in the highest 

 estimation, for he can be captured with the rudest line 

 and bait. There is hardly a lad to be found within 

 reach of a brook or a pond who does not catch perch 

 of some size or other. He likes company, and swims 

 in shoals of twenty, thirty, or fifty. The place to fish 

 for him is where the water runs sharply from the mill 

 into the meadows under the old grey one-arched 

 bridge. The brook has a general depth of about two 

 feet. Where it flows through the meadows it is 

 deeper, and there are rare places for perch, holes from 



