26 The A^nateur Poacher 



might drag the worm naturally with the wind and 

 slight current towards the shoal. 



The tiny blue buoy dances up and down on the 

 miniature waves ; beyond it a dazzling path of gold 

 stretches away to the distant osier-islands — a path 

 down which we came without seeing it till we looked 

 back. The wavelets strike with a faint * sock-sock* 

 against the bluff overhanging bow, and then roll on 

 to the lee-shore close at hand. 



It rises steep ; then a broad green ledge ; and 

 after that, still steeper, the face of a long-deserted 

 sandpit, where high up a rabbit sits at the mouth of 

 his hole, within range, but certain to escape even if 

 hit, and therefore safe. On the turf below is a round 

 black spot, still showing, though a twelvemonth has 

 gone by since we landed with half a dozen perch, lit 

 a fire and cooked the fishes. For Molly never could 

 'a -bear ' perch, because of the hardness of the scales, 

 saying she would as soon ' scrape a vlint ; ' and they 

 laughed to scorn our idea of skinning them as you do 

 moorhens, whose 'dowl' no fingers can pick. 



So we lit a fire and blew it up, lying on the soft 

 short grass in a state of nature after a swim, there 

 being none to see us but the glorious sun. The 

 skinned perch were sweeter than any I have tasted 

 since. 



