A PISCATORIAL ECLOGUE.

VEL ISAACUS WALTON IN NOVAM SCALAM REDIVIVUS.

BY PETER VON GEIST.

PISCATOR. You are happily met, my fair young lady!

DISCIPULA. A very good morrow to you, Mr. PISCATOR. You are early a-foot,
with your rod and lines.

PISCATOR. A veteran of the angle will be stirring early; there is a brace
of fish waiting for my hook on the other side of our lake. But you, my
gentle maiden, have you come down to the beach to see the sun rise? and
mayhap to pluck a rose with the dew on't? I think you have found it; for I
think I can see the rose on your cheek, and the dew in your eye. It is
sweet to be up betimes in the morning, when the air and the new sunlight
are as clear and calm as your own thoughts.

DISCIPULA. It is even so, as you and I know right well. A pleasant sail to
you; God send a dozen fish, and may you kill them merrily. But honest Mr.
Piscator, do you go alone to-day?

PISCATOR. I think so to do; for you are to note, a companion of patience
and sober demeanor, free from profane jests and scurrilous discourse, is
worth gold, but is not so easy to be come at. And none other than such
jumps with my humor.

DISCIPULA. And when, my good Mr. Piscator, will you give me another lesson
in the art of angling? For you must know the last has only increased my
desire to learn something more of it. Or do you think that we women can
never attain skill in that noble and gentle art?

PISCATOR. That it is a noble and a gentle art I am ready to maintain; and
that women have attained skill in it is not to be doubted; as you will
read in books of old time, that ladies both hunted, and hawked, and
fished.

DISCIPULA. But the lesson, my honest master? When shall I have another
lesson?

PISCATOR. You shall even suit your own convenience. And some fine morning,
when you are so disposed, we will take a walk down the river; when I will
teach you to cast your line for trout; for indeed, it requires a sharp wit
and much practice to throw your fly so that the trout will rise at it.

DISCIPULA. Not in the river, if it please you, good Mr. Piscator, not in
the river! Teach me to fish in the lake.

PISCATOR. Without doubt, my fair young lady, it must be as you desire. And
yet, it is not every woman that would have the courage to cross the pond
in a skiff that rocks to every ripple.

DISCIPULA. Trust me for that. You should know that I am not wont to be
frightened at trifles.

PISCATOR. Truly, it