CHAP. IV.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 93 



door, that my brother Peter, a good Angler and a cheerful 

 companion, had sent word he would lodge there to-night, and 

 bring a friend with him. My Hostess has two beds, and I 

 know you and I may have the best : we '11 rejoice with my 

 brother Peter and his friend, tell tales, or sing ballads, or make 

 a catch, or find some harmless sport to content us, and pass 

 away a little time without offence to God or man. 



VEN. A match, good Master : let 's go to that house, for the 

 linen looks white, and smells of lavender, and I long to lie in a 

 pair of sheets that smell so. Let 's be going, good Master, for 

 I am hungry again with fishing. 



Pise. Nay, stay a little, good Scholar : I caught my last 

 Trout with a worm ; now I will put on a minnow and try a 

 quarter of an hour about yonder trees for another, and so walk 

 towards our lodging. Look you, Scholar, thereabout we shall 

 ^lave a bite presently, or not at all. Have with you, Sir ! o' 

 my word, I have hold of him. Oh ! it is a great logger- 

 headed Chub ; come, hang him upon that willow-twig, and 

 let 's be going. But turn out of the way a little, good Scholar, 

 towards yonder high honeysuckle hedge; there we '11 sit and 

 sing whilst this shower falls so gently upon the teeming earth, 

 and gives yet a sweeter smell to the lovely flowers that adorn 

 these verdant meadows. 



Look, under that broad beech-tree I sat down, when I was 

 last this way a-fishing, and the birds in the adjoining grove 

 seemed to have a friendly contention with an echo, whose dead 

 voice seemed to live in a hollow tree, near to the brow of that 

 primrose hill ; there I sat viewing the silver streams glide si- 

 lently towards their centre, the tempestuous sea; yet some- 

 times opposed by rugged roots, and pebble-stones, which broke 

 their waves, and turned them into foam : and sometimes I 

 beguiled time by viewing the harmless lambs, some leaping 

 securely in the cool shade, whilst others sported themselves in 

 the cheerful sun ; and saw others craving comfort from the 

 swollen udders of their bleating dams. As I thus sat, these 



