"You know, father," put in Karl, "the wider shallow in the river above the tile works? I saw a trout rise there, and pointed it out to Herr Hardy, He watched it, and when the trout rose again he walked straight into the river and caught it by a long cast. It was the biggest fish."
"I have undertaken to teach you two boys English," said Hardy; "and if you will try and learn, I will teach you how to fish and give you rods and flies as well."
"A thousand thanks, Herr Hardy," said Karl and Axel, with delight.
"You have already prepared the way for performing your part of our contract, Herr Hardy," said the Pastor; "I can only hope I shall execute mine so well. With the boys' hearts in the work the rest is easy;" and Pastor Lindal regarded his manly and self-possessed guest with interest.
John Hardy could now in the full light of a day in May consider Pastor Lindal; his age was apparently over fifty, his features were clear cut and handsome, his eyes blue, and his hair had been a light-brown. There was an impression of probity about him that struck Hardy forcibly. His manner was a trifle awkward to Hardy's notion, but it was kindly. His daughter Helga was like her father. Her complexion was clear and her voice musical. Her manner was, Hardy thought, not refined. It was simple and straightforward, and to John Hardy she appeared to want the ladylike tone of an English lady. The two boys Karl and Axel were like English lads of the same age, frank and open, and Hardy liked them.
The Pastor had his pipe in full glow—his daughter had filled it—and Hardy, taught by his experience of the previous evening, lit a cigar. The Pastor said that he had his duties to attend to, and some of his parish children as he called them to visit, and that his daughter Helga had also her visits to make. Hardy replied that he should write to his mother and some business letters, and if dinner was at four, as the Pastor had intimated, that he should like to fish in the evening, to relieve Kirstin's doubts as to whether the frying-pan would be wanted for breakfast on the morrow by catching some trout the night before.
"And you will take us, Herr Hardy?" said Karl and Axel with some anxiety.
"Come to my room at three," said Hardy; "I will begin to teach you how to fish. I have a lighter fly rod, and we will prepare the tackle."
After dinner John Hardy and the boys went to the river. Hardy had a sixteen-foot minnow rod, and put up a twelve-foot fly rod for the boys, and showed them how to cast it. They took it in turns, and Karl caught a trout. Hardy waded the shallows, fishing with a minnow, and the trout for an hour were on the feed. The largest trout he caught was over three pounds, and seventeen weighed nineteen pounds, by Hardy's English spring balance.
John Hardy changed his clothes and came down to the room occupied by Pastor Lindal and his family as a sitting-room, and found Frøken Helga playing on an old piano to the Pastor, who was smoking in his easy chair. She at once ceased.