ing, is not
so much to blame for inattention after all, being at the time just one
hundred and fifty yards away, beside those bulrushes.

Indeed that very idea seems to have struck the fisherman too, and he
marks the likely spot, and will go there to-morrow, not to-day--no, he
will always stick one day at one place. How he moves to or from it I do
not know, for the man and boat had always come before I saw them, and I
never stopped long enough to see them depart. Four men fished four
mornings thus, and only two fish were caught by them in my presence.

The regatta is over, and Nadar's balloon is in the sky, but seeming no
bigger than other balloons, so soon does the mind fail to appreciate
positive size when the object you look at is seen alone. It is the old
story of the moon, which "looks as large as a soup-plate," and yet
Nadar's _Geant_ was the largest balloon ever seen, and it carries a house
below it instead of a car--a veritable house, with two storeys, and doors
and windows. The freedom of its motion sailing away reminds me that the
Rob Roy ought to be moving too,--that she was not built to dabble about
on rivers, but to charge the crested wave; and, indeed, there was always
a sensation of being pent up when she was merely floating near the inland
cornfields, and so far from the salt green sea; and this, too, even
though pleasant parties of ladies were on board, and boys got jaunts and
cruises from me, which I am certain pleased them much; still the
reef-points on her sails rattled impatiently for real breezes and the
curl of the surf, while the storm mizen was growing musty, so long stowed
away unused.

Next day, therefore, the Blue Peter was flying at the fore, and the Rob
Roy's cellar had its sea stock laid in from "Spiers and Pond," of ale,
and brandy, and wine. Before a fine fresh wind, with rain pelting
cheerfully on my back, we scudded down the Seine. To sail thus along a
rapid stream with many barges to meet, and trees overhanging, and shoals
at various depths below, is a very capital exercise, especially if you
feel your honour at stake about getting aground, however harmless that
would be. But the Seine has greater difficulties here, because the
numerous bridges each will present an obstacle which must be dealt with
at once, and yet each particular bridge will have its special features
and difficulties, not perhaps recognized when first you meet them so
suddenly. {142} The bridges on the Sein