PISCATOR. You are happily met, my fair young lady!
DISCIPULA. A very good morrow to you, Mr. PISCATOR. You are early a-foot,
with your rod and lines.
PISCATOR. A veteran of the angle will be stirring early; there is a brace
of fish waiting for my hook on the other side of our lake. But you, my
gentle maiden, have you come down to the beach to see the sun rise? and
mayhap to pluck a rose with the dew on't? I think you have found it; for I
think I can see the rose on your cheek, and the dew in your eye. It is
sweet to be up betimes in the morning, when the air and the new sunlight
are as clear and calm as your own thoughts.
DISCIPULA. It is even so, as you and I know right well. A pleasant sail to
you; God send a dozen fish, and may you kill them merrily. But honest Mr.
Piscator, do you go alone to-day?
PISCATOR. I think so to do; for you are to note, a companion of patience
and sober demeanor, free from profane jests and scurrilous discourse, is
worth gold, but is not so easy to be come at. And none other than such
jumps with my humor.
DISCIPULA. And when, my good Mr. Piscator, will you give me another lesson
in the art of angling? For you must know the last has only increased my
desire to learn something more of it. Or do you think that we women can
never attain skill in that noble and gentle art?
PISCATOR. That it is a noble and a gentle art I am ready to maintain; and
that women have attained skill in it is not to be doubted; as you will
read in books of old time, that ladies both hunted, and hawked, and
fished.
DISCIPULA. But the lesson, my honest master? When shall I have another
lesson?
PISCATOR. You shall even suit your own convenience. And some fine morning,
when you are so disposed, we will take a walk down the river; when I will
teach you to cast your line for trout; for indeed, it requires a sharp wit
and much practice to throw your fly so that the trout will rise at it.
DISCIPULA. Not in the river, if it please you, good Mr. Piscator, not in
the river! Teach me to fish in the lake.
PISCATOR. Without doubt, my fair young lady, it must be as you desire. And
yet, it is not every woman that would have the courage to cross the pond
in a skiff that rocks to every ripple.
DISCIPULA. Trust me for that. You should know that I am not wont to be
frightened at trifles.
PISCATOR. Truly, it is so; and I do not question your courage. Then on any
day that you will appoint, GOD willing, I will give you a sail; or indeed,
this morning, if duty does not incline you in another direction, and you
will step with me into my little boat yonder.
DISCIPULA. That shall I with right good will. But I shall have to make you
wait while I get my fishing tackle.
PISCATOR. Of necessity you shall not do that; for I remember now, I can
fit you with a spare harness of my own.
DISCIPULA. Then let us be going, say I. And is this the skiff? What a
painted little cockle-shell of a boat, with its two masts! I suppose it
will bear us both?
PISCATOR. It will bear twenty like you and me. Please let me help you to
step in; and though you feel it to give under your feet, and as it were,
slide away from beneath you, yet now when you are set down on the bench,
you perceive it is perfectly steady.
DISCIPULA. Oh, I shall not be in the least afraid. What a tiny little
schooner! But is it not bold to spread both sails? And see, now that we
come round to the wind, how the skiff keels over.
PISCATOR. It is entirely safe, my fair scholar; for since you have chosen
me to be your instructor and master in the science of the angle, you must
be content to be called my scholar. It is entirely safe; and you must
observe, that however much it may keel over, it cannot upset; for if
struck by a sudden squall, or flaw of the wind, the masts will go by the
board, and so it will right.
DISCIPULA. Excellently well contrived. But has not the breeze suddenly
died away? Yet the sails are distended, and miniature waves are thrown off
from either side of the bow.
PISCATOR. The breeze seems to have decreased, because we are moving in the
same direction with it; and you will see, now when I bring the boat more
toward the wind, that it blows as strong as before, and our motion is well
nigh stopped.
DISCIPULA. That I can very well see; and I pray you, my master, not to
bring the skiff so far into the wind to prove your proposition to me as to
capsize it. The masts bend over toward the water more than it is pleasant
to see.
PISCATOR. There is no danger; and after half an hour's experience you will
become used to it, and lose all apprehension. I think I will alter our
course a couple of points; so if you have a mind, since I cannot well
leave the tiller, you may unloose the cord that fastens the forward sail
to the side of the boat; wait a moment till we come round, and the sail
hangs loose in the wind; now loose the rope, and let it out about a foot;
so, wind it round as it was before. Neatly done! Next, let out the other
sail in the same way and to the same length. It was well executed! Really,
you are destined to become a sailor's wife after all.