78 WATERSIDE MEMORIES 



in Remove, was a very small fellow for his years, was 

 fishing for gudgeon, bleak, or other humble quarry, 

 with one of those light lines wound, with a brightly 

 painted float, on a piece of split bamboo that we used 

 to buy from a tackle shop 'up town/ He had, of 

 course, no reel; the line was tied to the top ring of a 

 cheap rod. His companion, Street, a big hulking fellow 

 ' in tails,' was not fishing, and at first was only an idle 

 spectator and critic. Just as the two lads arrived 

 opposite the mouth of the sewer, a wave shot across 

 the slack water, scattering the small fry which jumped 

 out of the stream in terror, and splash went a broad 

 tail as a mighty trout turned with a bleak across his 

 jaws. 



' 1 11 try him with another,' quoth little Jodrell, and 

 fastening a dead bleak to his perch hook, he flung it 

 across the narrow stream to the deep hole on the far 

 side. Nine hundred and ninety-nine chances against 

 the monster taking any notice of it, and any odds you 

 like against the frail tackle holding him if he did. 

 But there was the thousandth chance, and it came off"! 

 the big trout came on and nearly dragged the gimcrack 

 rod out of the fisher's hands. But he held on gamely, 

 and before either fish or fisher had recovered the sur- 

 prise, lo ! the former was wallowing in the shallow on 

 the hither side of the stream. In dashed Street, flung 

 himself flat upon the trout, grasped it in his arms and, 

 struggling up the bank, flung the glittering prize 

 (Thames trout do indeed glitter) high and dry on the 

 grass. The whole affair, from find to finish, lasted less 

 than a minute, and a lusty Thames trout of 9 Ib. honest 



