Mr. Jeremy shoved the boat out again a little way, and dropped in the
bait. There was a bite almost directly; the float gave a tremendous
bobbit!

"A minnow! a minnow! I have him by the nose!" cried Mr. Jeremy Fisher,
jerking up his rod.

But what a horrible surprise! Instead of a smooth fat minnow, Mr. Jeremy
landed little Jack Sharp the stickleback, covered with spines!

The stickleback floundered about the boat, pricking and snapping until he
was quite out of breath. Then he jumped back into the water.

And a shoal of other little fishes put their heads out, and laughed at
Mr. Jeremy Fisher.

And while Mr. Jeremy sat disconsolately on the edge of his boat--sucking
his sore fingers and peering down into the water--a _much_ worse thing
happened; a really _frightful_ thing it would have been, if Mr. Jeremy had
not been wearing a macintosh!

A great big enormous trout came up--ker-pflop-p-p-p! with a splash--and
it seized Mr. Jeremy with a snap, "Ow! Ow! Ow!"--and then it turned and
dived down to the bottom of the pond!

But the trout was so displeased with the taste of the macintosh, that in
less than half a minute it spat him out again; and the only thing it
swallowed was Mr. Jeremy's goloshes.