i AT DAWN OF DAY 9 



Let us see how he sets about it. First 

 he places his camp-stool firmly some four 

 feet from the water's edge. Then from the 

 supplementary basket which he has brought 

 he produces three balls like to those which 

 he offered to the fishes on the previous 

 night, only smaller. These he deftly drops 

 into the stream, one close to the bank, the 

 other two about eight feet out, just where 

 the river hesitates in its course and then 

 divides. Next, taking his rods and creel, 

 he retires back into the meadow, to prepare 

 for the attack. He unties the bundle of 

 rods and takes out the handle of his landing- 

 net, to which he fixes the net that lay in 

 his creel. And this was wise in him ; we 

 have known anglers so impatient to begin 

 that they have forgotten to make ready 

 their net, and so when that mighty fish 

 came, whose advent they so eagerly awaited, 

 they have seen him indeed and straightway 

 lost him, which is the more bitter part. 



Next he takes from its case a mighty rod 

 whose joints are six and its length as many 

 yards ; yet is it light, for it comes from a 

 land where a generous sun makes the canes 

 grow tall and straight and hollow withal. 



