they glided swiftly down the stream.

"What are you going to do first, Bob?" said Dexter, who felt more bright
and cheerful now out in the sunshine, with the surface all ripple and
glow.

"Why, I telled yer just now!" said the boy surlily. "Mind what yer
doing, or you'll catch a crab."

Dexter did catch one the next moment, thrusting his oar in so deeply
that he could hardly withdraw it, and bringing forth quite a little
storm of bullying from his companion.

"Here, I shall never make nothing o' you," cried Bob. "Give's that
there oar."

"No, no, let me go on pulling," said Dexter good-humouredly, for his fit
of anger had passed off. "I'm not used to it like you are, but I shall
soon learn."

He tried to emulate Bob's regular rowing, and by degrees managed to help
the boat along till toward midday, when, seeing an attractive bend where
the river ran deep and dark round by some willows, Bob softly rowed the
boat close up to the bank, moored her to the side, and then began to fit
together his tackle, a long willow wand being cut and trimmed to do duty
for a rod.

This done, a very necessary preliminary had to be attended to, namely,
the finding of bait.

Bob was provided with a little canvas bag, into which he thrust a few
green leaves and some scraps of moss, before leaping ashore, and
proceeding to kick off patches of the bank in search of worms.

Dexter watched him attentively, and then his eyes fell upon a
good-sized, greenish-hued caterpillar which had dropped from a willow
branch into the boat.

This seemed so suitable for a bait that Dexter placed it in one of Bob's
tin boxes, and proceeded to search for more; the boughs upon being
shaken yielding six or seven.

"Whatcher doing of?" grumbled Bob, coming back to the boat, after
securing a few worms. "Yah! they're no use for bait."

All the same, though, the boy took one of the caterpillars, passed the
hook through its rather tough skin, and threw out some distance in front
of the boat, and right under the overhanging boughs.

There was a quick bob of the float, and then it began to glide along the
top of the water, while, as Bob skilfully checked it, there was a quick
rushing to and fro, two or three minutes' hard fight, and a half-pound
trout was drawn alongside, and hoisted into the boat.

"That's the way I doos it," said Bob, whose success suddenly turned him
quite amiable. "Fish will take a caterpillar sometimes. Give us
another!"

Th