xiv A SUBURBAN FISHERY 263 



day or two before ? In short, they reduced 

 me to silence and shame. 



Below the weir -pool is the "hut" 

 which, by the way, should have the 

 honoured legend piscatoribus sacrum above 

 its portal. It stands on piles right in the 

 middle of the river, has a balcony running 

 round it, and is connected with land by a 

 wooden bridge. In the hut a layman might 

 soon learn all the intimacies of the craft 

 such talk would he hear concerning the 

 habits of all fish that swim, and the ways of 

 catching them ; such variety of tackling, of 

 rods, of flies, spinning-traces, floats, hooks, 

 reels, and landing-nets would he see. And 

 he might note, if of philosophic habit, the 

 subtle difference betwixt morning and even- 

 ing. In the morning the brotherhood is 

 brisk and full of hope ; it has a long day all 

 its own; it snuffs the pure air; it fits 

 together its rod with speed ; care and worry 

 are things unknown. But in the evening 

 the brotherhood lingers and dallies with 

 regret ; it has spent its long day, perhaps 

 with inadequate result ; it no longer snuffs 

 the pure air it breathes it in with low 

 sighs ; it takes down its rod slowly, almost 



