THE ANGLER'S GUIDE. 173 



" Ah, me ! Ah, me ! unlucky wight, 

 To leave my spouse and bed at night; 

 With bosom full of hope and fear, 

 To come to sich a place as this 'ere, 

 To pull out jacks with much delight, 

 But now Tm come, not one will bite, 

 Though frogs as fat as frogs can be, 

 And a lovely piece of steak they see ; 

 Oh ! Lucy dear, to thee I come, 

 But sure thou wilt look werry glum 

 When in the basket thou shalt spy 

 No jacks or pikes for you and I ! " 



But the rain now began to come down, 

 and as they had no umbrellas, and wanted 

 their lunch, they turned into the house, leav- 

 ing their lines in the water, Rigings saying, 

 that perhaps the fish would take the bait 

 while they were gone, for Isaac Walton said 

 that they would sometimes bite in a shower. 

 And they called out to the gents in the punt, 

 and asked them if they'd be so kind as 

 to see that no one ran away with their tackle, 

 and they said they would. It then occurred to 

 the barbel fishers that they should like to 

 play them a trick, and as they had plenty of 

 fish, they got the boatman to take three large 

 ones in a boat, and hook one on each of their 

 hooks, and then put them into the water again. 

 This he did ; cramming as much of the frogs 

 and beef-steak into the mouths of the barbel 



