for saddle horses, except for
ladies; but they will do well for what we bought them."

"Right you are, master!" said Garth, as Hardy remounted Buffalo, and
went for a ride.

CHAPTER VI.

"Next, note that the eel seldom stirs in the day,
but then hides himself; and therefore is usually caught by
night, with one of those baits of which I have spoken."
--_The Complete Angler._

The two Danish horses were driven by Garth, and, in his hands, soon
grew accustomed to harness and the light carriage John Hardy had
purchased at Horsens. Longer expeditions were made to fish the smaller
Danish streams, and, to the great gratification of Karl and Axel, to
Silkeborg. The lakes at Silkeborg, with their idyllic picturesqueness,
interested Hardy, while the pike and the perch fishing yielded good
sport. Hardy was skilful in spinning a heavy minnow deep in the water,
casting it from a boat, and thus attracting the heaviest perch. A
paternoster also in his hands caught a quantity of perch. Pike were
caught by casting a dead roach, with a rod with upright rings, and
Hardy threw his bait with a length and certainty that the Danish
fishermen were not accustomed to. The bait would fall into a little
spot of water amongst the reeds. A jerk and pull made the dead fish
appear like a wounded live one; when out would rush Herr _Esox lucius_
from his lair, and, after expostulating in the usual manner, would
come into the boat with the sullen look of
how-I-should-like-to-bite-the-calf-of-your-leg, peculiar to Herr
Esox's genus.

The Danish fishermen at Silkeborg began to entertain the notion that
John Hardy, if his stay was prolonged, would depopulate the lakes of
both pike and perch; and they hugged the idea with affection that at
least he could not catch eels, with which the lakes abound.

"Can you catch eels, Herr Hardy?" said Karl. "The fishermen say you
may be able to catch pike and perch, but you do not know how to catch
eels with a line in the lakes."

"Yes," replied Hardy, "if you and Axel will undertake to take them off
the hooks when caught; it is not an agreeable bit of work."

"Yes, that will we," said Karl and Axel at once.

They had then no idea of the difficulty of getting off the slime of an
eel from their clothes, and what very pointed personal remarks would
be made by Kirstin, when they returned to Vandstrup Praestegaard.

The preparations for catching eels with lines was of immense interest
to