6 FISHING GOSSIP. 



the window or over the balcony : a scamper to the 

 boathouse, a vigorous shove or two with the punt- 

 pole, and in five minutes the ripecks are fast, and 

 everything snug in the very perfection of a " pitch " 

 not that one out there over the shallows, for the 

 sun will soon have done washing his face, and in an 

 hour will blaze up dazzling enough for Phaeton him- 

 self but the other under the island yonder, and just 

 within the dip of the chestnuts, where you can see 

 the " golden gravel," as Tennyson calls it, about four 

 feet below, and as bright as a new guinea. 



Splash ! in goes the rake, leaded at the end like 

 a constable's staff that it may sink well out over the 

 swim, three minutes' vigorous raking another for 

 comfortably shaking down into places, and you are 

 about to set to work with a will, when you probably 

 discover that Blanche has broken her line, or that 

 Julia's hook is off (it was yesterday !) But lines are 

 not difficult to mend, and there are more hooks than 

 one in the world, so everything is soon en regie, and 

 at it you go. Ha ! a bite the moment the float touches 

 the water, bob souse ! you have him, so has Julia 

 (Blanche and Charley aren't baited yet) two fish 

 in two swims, that looks well ; for if gudgeon don't 

 come on to bite at first, they often don't do it at all. 

 " Julia, a pair of gloves on the first dozen ?" " Done !" 

 and done you are, for Julia nobbles twelve unsus- 

 pecting gobiones in as many swims, before you have 



