Crockers Hole | Page 3

been at
least on bowing terms with every fish as long as his middle finger, why
had he failed to know this champion? The answer is simple--because of
his short cuts. Flying as he did like an arrow from a bow, Pike used to
hit his beloved river at an elbow, some furlong below Crocker's Hole,
where a sweet little stickle sailed away down stream, whereas for the
length of a meadow upward the water lay smooth, clear, and shallow;
therefore the youth, with so little time to spare, rushed into the
downward joy.
And here it may be noted that the leading maxim of the present period,
that man can discharge his duty only by going counter to the stream,
was scarcely mooted in those days. My grandfather (who was a
wonderful man, if he was accustomed to fill a cart in two days of
fly-fishing on the Barle) regularly fished down stream; and what more

than a cartload need anyone put into his basket?
And surely it is more genial and pleasant to behold our friend the river
growing and thriving as we go on, strengthening its voice and
enlargening its bosom, and sparkling through each successive meadow
with richer plenitude of silver, than to trace it against its own grain and
good-will toward weakness, and littleness, and immature conceptions.
However, you will say that if John Pike had fished up stream, he would
have found this trout much sooner. And that is true; but still, as it was,
the trout had more time to grow into such a prize. And the way in
which John found him out was this. For some days he had been
tormented with a very painful tooth, which even poisoned all the joys
of fishing. Therefore he resolved to have it out, and sturdily entered the
shop of John Sweetland, the village blacksmith, and there paid his
sixpence. Sweetland extracted the teeth of the village, whenever they
required it, in the simplest and most effectual way. A piece of fine wire
was fastened round the tooth, and the other end round the anvil's nose,
then the sturdy blacksmith shut the lower half of his shop door, which
was about breast-high, with the patient outside and the anvil within; a
strong push of the foot upset the anvil, and the tooth flew out like a
well-thrown fly. When John Pike had suffered this very bravely, "Ah,
Master Pike," said the blacksmith, with a grin, "I reckon you won't pull
out thic there big vish,"--the smithy commanded a view of the
river,---"clever as you be, quite so peart as thiccy."
"What big fish?" asked the boy, with deepest interest, though his mouth
was bleeding fearfully.
"Why that girt mortial of a vish as hath his hover in Crocker's Hole.
Zum on 'em saith as a' must be a zammon."
Off went Pike with his handkerchief to his mouth, and after him ran
Alec Bolt, one of his fellow-pupils, who had come to the shop to enjoy
the extraction.
"Oh, my!" was all that Pike could utter, when by craftily posting
himself he had obtained a good view of this grand fish.

"I'll lay you a crown you don't catch him!" cried Bolt, an impatient
youth, who scorned angling.
"How long will you give me?" asked the wary Pike, who never made
rash wagers.
"Oh! till the holidays if you like; or, if that won't do, till Michaelmas."
Now the midsummer holidays were six weeks off--boys used not to
talk of "vacations" then, still less of "recesses."
"I think I'll bet you," said Pike, in his slow way, bending forward
carefully, with his keen eyes on this monster; "but it would not be fair
to take till Michaelmas. I'll bet you a crown that I catch him before the
holidays--at least, unless some other fellow does."
CHAPTER II.
The day of that most momentous interview must have been the 14th of
May. Of the year I will not be so sure; for children take more note of
days than of years, for which the latter have their full revenge thereafter.
It must have been the 14th, because the morrow was our holiday, given
upon the 15th of May, in honour of a birthday.
Now, John Pike was beyond his years wary as well as enterprising,
calm as well as ardent, quite as rich in patience as in promptitude and
vigour. But Alec Bolt was a headlong youth, volatile, hot, and hasty, fit
only to fish the Maelstrom, or a torrent of new lava. And the moment
he had laid that wager he expected his crown piece; though time, as the
lawyers phrase it, was "expressly of the essence of the contract."
And now he demanded that Pike should spend the holiday in trying to
catch that trout.