A BROOK 



one slender eel. These made quite a show, and 

 were greatly admired ; but I never saw the same 

 man there again. He was satisfied. 



As I sat on the white rail under the aspen, and 

 inhaled the scent of the beans flowering hard by, 

 there was a question which suggested itself to me, 

 and the answer to which I never could supply. 

 The crowd about the pond all stood with their 

 backs to the beautiful flowing brook. They had 

 before them the muddy banks of the stagnant pool, 

 on whose surface patches of scum floated. 



Behind them was the delicious stream, clear and 

 limpid, bordered with sedge and willow and flags, 

 and overhung with branches. The strip of sward 

 between the two waters was certainly not more 

 than twenty yards; there was no division, hedge, 

 or railing, and evidently no preservation, for the 

 mouchers came and washed their water-cress which 

 they had gathered in the ditches by the side hatch, 

 and no one interfered with them. 



There was no keeper or water bailiff", not even 

 a notice board. Policemen, on foot and mounted, 

 passed several times daily, and, like everybody else, 

 paused to see the sport, but said not a word. 

 Clearly, there was nothing whatever to prevent any 

 of those present from angling in the stream ; yet 

 they one and all, without exception, fished in the 

 pond. This seemed to me a very remarkable fact. 

 73 



