THE TROUT. 127 



cheerful companion, had sent word that 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 smells so. Let 's be going, good 

 master, for I am hungry again with fishing. 



PlSC. 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 have 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 silently towards their centre, the tem- 

 pestuous sea ; yet sometimes opposed by rugged roots and 

 pebble-stones, which broke their waves, and turned them 



