THE CHUB. 113 



let your bait fall gently upon the water three or four inches 

 before him, and he will infallibly take the bait. And you will 

 be as sure to catch him ; for he is one of the leather-mouthed 

 fishes of which a hook does scarce ever lose its hold ; and 

 therefore give him play enough before you offer to take him 

 out of the water. Go your way presently : take my rod 

 and do as I bid you ; and I will sit down and mend my 

 tackling till you return back. 



VEN. Truly, my loving master, you have offered me as 

 fair as I could wish. I '11 go, and observe your directions. 



Look you, master, what I have done, that which joys my 

 heart, caught just such another chub as yours was. 



PlSC. Marry, and I am glad of it : I am like to have a 

 towardly scholar of you. I now see, that with advice and 

 practice, you will make an angler in a short time. Have but 

 a love to it, and I '11 warrant you. 



VEN. But, master, what if I could not have found a grass- 

 hopper ? 



PlSC. Then I may tell you, that a black snail, with his 

 belly slit to show his white, or a piece of soft cheese, will 

 usually do as well. Nay, sometimes a worm, or any kind 

 of fly, as the ant-fly, the flesh-fly, or wall-fly ; or the dor or 

 beetle, which you may find under cow-dung, or a bob, which 

 you will find in the same place, and in time will be a beetle: 

 it is a short white worm, like to and bigger than a gentle ; 

 or a cod-worm, or a case-worm, any of these will do very 

 well to fish in such a manner. And after this manner you 

 may catch a trout in a hot evening : when as you walk by 

 a brook, and shall see or hear him leap at flies, then if you 

 get a grasshopper, put it on your hook, with your line about 

 two yards long, standing behind a bush or tree where his 



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