24 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



should turn round and detect the awful imposition, 

 and I fully expected that the churchwarden, after 

 the service, would seize me and publicly expose 

 me as a criminal. 



The whole of my uncle's gift went in the 

 purchase of a splendid lot of tackle, and it was 

 some time before the nurse ceased to wonder how 

 I contrived to get so much for eighteenpence ! 



With a pennyworth of sheep's lights, procured 

 from the butcher, I used to angle for crabs from 

 the steps below the pier deck. It was precarious 

 sport, for after the bait, with a stone attached, 

 had been let down to the bottom and cautiously 

 pulled up after resting there five minutes or so, 

 a crab, or perhaps three or four crabs, refusing to 

 let go of the delicacy, would appear at the surface, 

 and just when being landed, drop off into the 

 sea. I caught some large ones, but they were 

 ticklish customers to retain in a basket, having a 

 knack of screwing themselves out. 



Hermit-crabs — those soft-bodied, boneless Crus- 

 tacea that take lodgings in any empty shell they 

 can find, preferabl)' a whelk's — I could have got 

 by the dozen, but they were no good except 

 as bait, for which I sometimes used them with 

 line, plummet, and hook, for plaice, flounders, and 

 crabs, Plaice caused the most excitement when 



