eyed the frog, moving his white lips as if the very sight imparted a gusto
to the natural excellence of young frogs. I nearly dropped from the tree
stem from sheer suspense, when he made up his mind, put on steam, and took
it! He was fast in a minute, and kindly rushed out into the river, where I
played him. Then I wound in my line and hauled him up till his head and
mouth were out of the water. As there was an impenetrable screen of bushes
between him and me I laid the rod down, trusting to the tackle, and ran
round to where close by was a farm punt, made fast. It had been used
during harvest time, and was full of what in the classics they call the
"implements of Ceres." All of these that do not seem made to cut your leg
off are designed to run into and spike you. Besides scythes and reap
hooks, there were iron rakes (sharp end upwards), wooden rakes,
pitchforks, and garden forks, and the difficulty was to move in the punt
without getting cut or spiked. The last users of the punt had also taken
peculiar care to fasten it up. It was anchored by a grapnel, and by an
iron pin on a chain, the pin eighteen inches long and driven hard into the
bank. In a desperate hurry I hauled up the grapnel, did a regular Sandow
feat in pulling up the iron peg, seized a punt pole apparently weighted
with lead, but made out of an ash sapling, and started the punt. It would
not move. I found there was another mooring, so picking my way among the
scythes, spikes, rakes, &c., I hauled this in. It was most infernally
heavy, and turned out to be a cast-iron wheel of a steam plough or other
farming implement. Then I was under weigh, and got round to the fish. It
was still there. I could see its expressionless eye (about as big as a
sixpence) out of the water and its mouth wide open, when I remembered I
had forgotten the landing-net in my hurry. Then came the period of mental
aberration common to the amateur. The fish was certainly 4 lbs. in weight,
yet I tried to get him in with my hands. Of course he gave one big flop,
slipped out, and disappeared--the biggest chub I ever shall not catch.