ne was a fine long white horse-hair, and he tied a little wriggling worm
at the end.

The rain trickled down his back, and for nearly an hour he stared at the
float.

"This is getting tiresome, I think I should like some lunch," said Mr.
Jeremy Fisher.

He punted back again amongst the water-plants, and took some lunch out of
his basket.

"I will eat a butterfly sandwich, and wait till the shower is over," said
Mr. Jeremy Fisher.

A great big water-beetle came up underneath the lily leaf and tweaked the
toe of one of his goloshes.

Mr. Jeremy crossed his legs up shorter, out of reach, and went on eating
his sandwich.

Once or twice something moved about with a rustle and a splash amongst
the rushes at the side of the pond.

"I trust that is not a rat," said Mr. Jeremy Fisher; "I think I had better
get away from here."

Mr. Jeremy shoved the boat out again a little way, and dropped in the
bait. There was a bite almost directly; the float gave a tremendous
bobbit!

"A minnow! a minnow! I have him by the nose!" cried Mr. Jeremy Fisher,
jerking up his rod.

But what a horrible surprise! Instead of a smooth fat minnow, Mr. Jeremy
landed little Jack Sharp the stickleback, covered with spines!

The stickleback floundered about the boat, pricking and snapping until he
was quite out of breath. Then he jumped back into the water.

And a shoal of other little fishes put their heads out, and laughed at
Mr. Jeremy Fisher.

And while Mr. Jeremy sat disconsolately on the edge of his boat--sucking
his sore fingers and peering down into the water--a _much_ worse thing
happened; a really _frightful_ thing it would have been, if Mr. Jeremy had
not been wearing a macintosh!

A great big enormous trout came up--ker-pflop-p-p-p! with a splash--and
it seized Mr. Jeremy with a snap, "Ow! Ow! Ow!"--and then it turned and
dived down to the bottom of the pond!

But the trout was so displeased with the taste of the macintosh, that in
less than half a minute it spat him out again; and the only thing it
swallowed was Mr. Jeremy's goloshes.

Mr. Jeremy bounced up to the surface of the water, like a cork and the
bubbles out of a soda water bottle; and he swam with all his might to the
edge of the pond.

He scrambled out on the first bank he came to, and he hopped home across
the meadow with his macintosh all in tatters.

"What a mercy that was not a pike!" said Mr. Jeremy Fisher. "I have lost
my rod and basket; but it does n