fact, he felt rather afraid of
the slimy wide-mouthed monster.

At last the eel was freed from the hook, and lay quietly coiled round
the bottom of the basket, turning several small fish out of their
places, and making a considerable hubbub amongst the occupants of the
wicker prison, the excitement being principally displayed by flappings
of tails and short spring-back leaps.

All this time Mr Inglis was quietly landing a good many fish, most of
which were very fair-sized roach, with an occasional perch; but, soon
after Fred's exploit with the eel, he called gently to Harry for the
landing-net, and this summons caused the other members of the party to
come up as well, when they saw that Mr Inglis had evidently hooked a
large fish, and was playing him--many yards of his running line being
taken out. The fish, however, seemed to be rather sluggish in its
movements, keeping low down as though seeking the bottom; upon which
Fred declared it was a great eel. But it was no eel, though a
mud-loving fish, as was shown when he became ready for the landing-net,
Harry deftly placing it beneath the fish's slimy side, and lifting it
upon the grass.--And now its golden sides glittered in the sun as it lay
upon the bright green daisy-sprinkled bank, in all the glory, as a
fisherman would term it, of a noble tench of nearly four pounds'
weight--a great slimy fellow, with tiny golden scales and dark
olive-green back, huge thick leathery fins, and a mouth that looked as
though the great fish had lived upon pap all its lifetime. He had been
a cowardly fish in the water, and yielded himself up a prisoner with
very little struggling--nothing like that displayed by a perch about a
quarter his size, which Mr Inglis next hooked and played, and then lost
through its darting into a bed of strong weeds and entangling the line,
so that the heavy clearing ring sent down towards the hook proved
inadequate to the task of releasing it, and the line broke, and the fish
escaped with at least a yard of shotted silkworm gut hanging to the
hook.

Fred was very fortunate, for he, sitting quietly beneath a tree, caught
two or three very nice carp, independently of about a dozen roach and
perch; while Harry, the impetuous, first on one side, then on another,
caught scarcely anything, and would have hindered his brother and cousin
from the success which rewarded their patience, if Mr Inglis had not
kept to a rule which he made, that no one angler should