It, and the next left it exposed. By it we spied a trout; but the hill
above gave 'Velvet' the command of the hollow; and it was too risky even
to think of. After that the nuts were tame; there was nothing left but
to turn homewards. As for trout-fishing, there is nothing so easy. Take
the top joint off the rod, and put the wire on the second, which is
stronger, fill the basket, and replace the fly. There were fellows who
used to paddle in canoes up a certain river (not this little stream),
pick out the largest trout, and shoot them with pistols, under pretence
of practising at water-rats. CHAPTER V WOODLAND TWILIGHT: TRAITORS ON
THE GIBBET In a hedge that joined a wood, and about a hundred yards from
it, there was a pleasant hiding-place beside a pollard ash. The bank was
hollow with rabbit-buries: the summer heat had hardened the clay of the
mound and caused it to crack and crumble wherever their excavations left
a precipitous edge. Some way up the trunk of the tree an immense flat
fungus projected, roughly resembling the protruding lip of a savage
enlarged by the insertion of a piece of wood. If formed a black ledge
standing out seven or eight inches, two or three inches thick, and
extending for a foot or more round the bark. The pollard, indeed, was
dead inside, and near the ground the black touch-wood showed. Ash timber
must become rarer year by year: for, being so useful, it is constantly
cut down,