CHAP. IV.] THE THIRD DAY. 77 



landing-net. So, Sir, now he is mine own : what say you now, 

 is not this worth all my labour and your patience ? ^ 



Venator. On my word, master, this is a gallant Trout ; 

 what shall we do with him ? 



PiSCATOR. Marry, e'en eat him to supper : we'll go to my 

 hostess from whence we came ; she told me, as I was going out 

 of door, that my brother Peter, a good angler and a cheerful 

 companion, had sent word he would lodge there to-night, and 

 bring a friend with him. My hostess has two beds, and I know 

 you and I may have the best : we'll rejoice with my brother 

 Peter and his friend, tell tales, or sing ballads, or make a catch, 

 or find some harmless sport to content us,^ and pass away a 

 little time without offence to God or man. 



Venator. A match, good master, let's go to that house, for 

 the linen looks white, and smells of lavender, and I long to lie 

 in a pair of sheets that smell so. Let's be going, good master, 

 for I am hungry again with fishing. 



Piscator. Nay, stay a little, good scholar. I caught my 

 last Trout with a worm ; now I will put on a minnow, and try 

 a quarter of an hour about yonder trees for another ; and, so, 

 walk towards our lodging. Look you, scholar, thereabout we 

 shall have a bite presently, or not at all. Have with you, Sir : 

 o' my word I have hold of him. Oh ! it is a great logger-headed 

 Chub ; come, hang him upon that wUlow twig, and let's be 

 going. But turn out of the way a little, good scholar ! towards 

 yonder high honeysuckle hedge ; there we'll sit and sing, whilst 

 this shower* falls so gently upon the teeming earth, and gives 

 yet a sweeter smell to the lovely flowers that adorn these verdant 

 meadows. 



Look ! under that broad beech-tree I sat down, when I was 

 last this way a-fishing; and the birds in the adjoining grove seemed 

 to have a friendly contention with an echo, whose dead voice 

 seemed to live in a hollow tree ' near to the bfpw of that prim- 

 rose-hill. There I sat viewing the silver streams glide silently 

 towards their centre, the tempestuous sea j yet sometimes 

 opposed by rugged roots and pebble-stones, which broke their 

 waves, and turned them into foam ; and sometimes I beguiled 

 time by viewing ^ the harmless lambs ; some leaping securely in 



VARIATIONS. 



2 and your patience ? — 2d edit. 3 "and pass away,'' — ''or man." — zd edit, 



* toward yonder highhedge, we'Usit whilst this shower, &c. — ist^^d, ^cij and i^tk edit. 

 5 cave. — 1st, fid, ^d, and e^th edit. 

 ^ and sometimes viewing, &c. — js^, ^d, -^d, and 4th edit. 



