d round upon the prospect,
and discussed it. We made inquiries of the fisherman as to whether the
swallows had all departed for their winter quarters. We inquired who
lived in yonder mansion, and heard a long tale about the owner having
made money by inventing a wonderful kind of automatic blacking-brush.

As the story fizzled out, the leger lines having been down for some
little time, I thought, and not without reason, that I saw the point of
my rod trembling. Surely enough it was a bite, but, as Hawkins
suggested (doubtless borrowing the pun from some bygone customer), it
might have been an audacious dace. At any rate, the only result we
achieved at that particular time was the necessity of affixing another
lob-worm to the hook, and the casting out of the bulleted line again.
This story, together with the hearty way in which Hawkins expressed his
contempt for the patentee of the blacking-brush and his family, was so
interesting and amusing that I looked at him instead of at my fishing
rod; and as he at the same time looked at me, the position was left
unguarded, and we were both of us recalled from the realms of scandal
by a vigorous plunge of the rod-top. It was a sharp "knock," in fact,
followed by a series of tugs, so violent that the rod rattled on the
edge of the punt. There was no merit on my part in getting that
barbel, for the fish had hooked himself, and had gone down stream at
racing speed, before I could get command of him.

This, let me tell the young angler, is a dangerous position to be in.
The handling of a rod under such circumstances, with a fine line like
that with which you always ought to fish for barbel, requires great
care. The tendency is to be over excited, and in the agitation of the
moment one frequently commits the grave error of striking hard at a
running fish. The result is obvious. With a fish going strongly away,
and a man striking more strongly perhaps than he imagines in the
contrary direction, it is almost a certainty that something or other
will give way. However, an old stager at that kind of work gets out of
the predicament without any loss, and after the usual resistance
secures the fish. The battle was really fought about fifteen yards
below the punt.

Why the barbel should choose that particular ground to try conclusions
I am not aware. The water I know was deepest there, and, as I
afterwards satisfied myself by plumbing, formed a saucer-like hollow,
and there wer