a shoal is captured; but the angler
must be upon his guard, and mind that the wary fish do not catch sight
of him.

And now rods and lines were fitted together; hooks baited; ground-bait
lightly thrown in, and the business of the day commenced; though, for my
part, I could have wished for no pleasanter business than to have sat in
the shade watching the fish and water insects darting about in the lake,
and the myriads of insects in the air, to whom the lake seemed to
possess so great an attraction that they kept falling in, and every now
and then were captured by some hungry fish. I could, I say, have wished
for no pleasanter business than watching all this, and the flecked
clouds far up in the sky, so fine and soft, that they seemed almost
melting away into the delicate blue above them. But there was other
business for the visitors, for the fish fed well that day, and roach and
carp of small size were freely landed. This was not all that was
wanted, however, for the desire of the anglers was to hook one of the
great carp that every now and then kept springing almost out of the
water, far out in the middle of the lake, and making a splash that of
itself alone whispered of pounds weight. But, no; the old fellows would
not be caught,--they left that to the younger branches of their family,
who fell in tolerable numbers into the basket brought from Hollowdell.

All at once Fred called out that he had caught a big one, and, from the
way his rod bent, this was evidently the case--the fish seeming to be
making determined efforts to perform the feat described by Harry and
Philip--namely, that of sticking his tail into the mud and there
anchoring himself. Mr Inglis and the boys came up to lend him
assistance, when his uncle smiled, for he knew what it was that Fred had
hooked.

"Isn't it a big one, Papa?" said Harry; "look how he pulls."

"Don't I wish I had him," said Philip.

"Land it, Fred," said Mr Inglis; "and mind it does not tangle your
line,--pull away."

Fred did as his uncle told him, and pulled away, so that he soon had
twisting upon the grass a very tolerably sized eel, writhing and twining
and running in beneath the strands; slipping through the hands that
tried to grasp it; and seeming quite as much at home on land as in the
muddy water at the bottom of the pond. As for Fred, he stood aloof
holding his rod, and leaving all the catching to his cousins; the snaky
eel presenting no temptation to him--in