EXPERIENCES & REMINISCENCES 17 



desperate pulling the resistance gradually grew less, and 

 Master Pike was drawn to the side. He lay gasping on the 

 green turf with the small roach hook with which the writer had 

 been fishing through his upper lip. What became of the 

 perch Mr. Hopper never knew. How he got that hook out he 

 altogether forgets. Mr. Hopper does remember that a huge 

 mouth with formidable-looking teeth and malicious eyes 

 confronted him whenever he approached to extract the barb. 

 That Mr. Hopper did succeed in some manner or other in 

 performing the delicate and dangerous operation is certain, 

 as he remembers quite well wrapping up the pike in his 

 great coat and rushing past the Hall calling out many times 

 at the top of his voice " I've caught a pike." Mr. Hopper was 

 utterly regardless of having in a sense broken the stipulation 

 under which he had been allowed to fish, but then he looked 

 upon the capture as entirely due to accident. It was a proud 

 moment of the writer's life when hot and steaming he reached 

 the rendezvous of the other picniccers and unfolded his great 

 coat and displayed to their astonished eyes his three-and-a- 

 half pound capture. 



Mr. Hopper believes it is an unusual thing for pike to take 

 perch when feeding, and if the perch went down his gullet it is 

 reckoned Master Pike had a rough time of it from the 

 perch's back fin until nature put an end to their respective 

 sufferings. An incident of this kind happening in one's early 

 days makes a great impression upon the juvenile mind and is 

 ever afterwards vividly present in the mind of the " piscator." 

 Mr. Hopper once had a big brother he has now but in the 

 days he is about to speak of he was the big brother. Many 

 times he went fishing before he brought to bank a single fish 

 and every fisherman knows with what pride a juvenile angler 

 carries home the first proof of his prowess. At last that happy 

 day arrived. Mr. Hopper's big brother had gone to sleep on the 

 bank (it was in the days of Aylesby Mill) and having in due 

 course awoke from his slumbers and pulled up his rod he found 

 a roach secure on the hook. Oh ! joy of joys ! with what 

 fond pride would it be carried home ; but before committing it 



