384 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



render yourself worthy of his friendship. May I be so bold 

 as to ask your name ? 



PlSC. Yes surely, Sir, and if you please a much nicer ques- 

 tion : my name is , and I intend to stay long enough 



in your company, if I find you do not dislike mine, to ask 

 yours too. In the meantime, because we are now almost 

 at Ashborn, I shall freely and bluntly tell you, that I am a 

 brother of the angle too, and, peradventure, can give you 

 some instructions how to angle for a trout in a clear river, 

 that my father Walton himself will not disapprove, though 

 he did either purposely omit, or did not remember them, 

 when you and he sat discoursing under the sycamore-tree. 

 And being you have already told me whither your journey 

 is intended, and that I am better acquainted with the 

 country than you are, I will heartily and earnestly entreat 

 you will not think of staying at this town, but go on with 

 me six miles farther to my house, where you shall be ex- 

 tremely welcome : it is directly in your way, we have day 

 enough to perform our journey, and, as you like your enter- 

 tainment, you may there repose yourself a day or two, or as 

 many more as your occasions will permit, to recompense 

 the trouble of so much a longer journey. 



VlAT. Sir, you suprise me with so friendly an invitation 

 upon so short acquaintance ; but how advantageous soever 

 it would be to me, and that my haste, perhaps, is not so 

 great but it might dispense with such a divertisement as I 

 promise myself in your company, yet I cannot, in modesty, 

 accept your offer, and must therefore beg your pardon : I 

 could otherwise, I confess, be glad to wait upon you, if upon 

 no other account but to talk of Mr. L Walton, and to receive 

 those instructions you say you are able to give me for the 



