90 



"perhaps eight or ten little things." "Why," said he, "you 

 are fishing with worms, and I never thought of bringing any 

 with me." They seem to prefer worms to-day to any other bait ; 

 we never know when to have them ; sometimes they fancy one 

 bait and sometimes another. Tou must let me have some of 

 your worms, and you can have some of my baits." Well, I 

 thought, here is a liberal offer : this looks something like ieing 

 licked, but its no use doing the thing by halves, I may as well 

 kill him with kindness, so I said you are welcome to some of my 

 worms, and as your float and tackle are not quite the thing for 

 worm fishing, I wiU lend you one. He accepted this offer, and 

 I arranged it for the proper depth, telling him he might fish 

 the same swim in which I was angling. He said that would be 

 against the regulations, as we had agreed to fish at least twenty 

 yards apart ; but I quieted his compunctions by telling him' 

 that as I consented to it, no fault could be found. We then 

 fished in the same swim, and he caught the fish as quickly as 

 I did, to his great delight. I then left and went to fish a swim 

 thirty yards below, where in a few minutes I got them to bite 

 as fast as in the first place ; but they went off biting in th© 

 place I had left ten minutes after I was gone, for the simple 

 reason that my opponent never thought of throwing in a few- 

 worms. He quickly packed up his traps for the purpose, as I 

 thought, of going to fish another place. Bat I was mistaken, 

 for he went behind a hedge, lapped up his tackle, and bolted 

 home as fast as his legs could carry him. When I found this 

 to be the case I packed up and went after him, but could not 

 overtake him. At this time it would be about half-past two 

 o'clock. When I got home I went to my uncle and showed 

 him what I had eaaight, and told him what had occurred. He 

 weighed the fish and found there were seventeen pounds of 

 £>oach, and six or eight pounds of other fish. He then went to 

 my opponent's house and asked him why he ran away. " Oh," he 

 said,, " I give in that I have been fairly beaten, but it was unfair 

 on your friend's part to go away and take all the fish with him ; I 

 scarcely got a bite after he was gone," 



