"Here, lend me the pole.

I'll soon catch him." Dave smiled, but did not give up the pole.
"Nay, lad, I'll ketch up to un.

Wait a bit; fish'll be tired 'fore Dave Gittans." The pursuit continued in the most exasperating way, and to an onlooker it would have been exceedingly absurd, since it seemed as if the man and his companions were off oh the great mere with its open spaces of water and islands of reeds, and lanes through them like so many little crooked canals, in pursuit of a white pig's-bladder tied round the middle to make it double.

There it would lie till the boat neared, and then off it went with a skim that took it twenty, thirty, or forty yards.

Next time the boat neared, instead of the skim it would begin to dance as if in mockery, bobbing down whenever Dick reached over with his hook, and always keeping out of his reach, just as if a mocking spirit directed all its movements and delighted in tantalising them.