after a storm, when the clouds break and the sky is streaked with
lightning, when the earth shakes with the grumbling thunder; it is then
that, either through hunger or terror, all the fish forget their habits
in a turbulent flight.

"In this confusion follow or neglect all favorable signs, and just go on
fishing; you will march to victory!"

In order to catch fish of all sizes, he bought three well-perfected
poles, made to be used as a cane in the city, which, on the river, could
be transformed into a fishing rod by a simple jerk. He bought some number
fifteen hooks for gudgeon, number twelve for bream, and with his number
seven he expected to fill his basket with carp. He bought no earth worms
because he was sure of finding them everywhere; but he laid in a
provision of sand worms. He had a jar full of them, and in the evening he
watched them with interest. The hideous creatures swarmed in their bath
of bran as they do in putrid meat. Patissot wished to practice baiting
his hook. He took up one with disgust, but he had hardly placed the
curved steel point against it when it split open. Twenty times he
repeated this without success, and he might have continued all night had
he not feared to exhaust his supply of vermin.

He left by the first train. The station was full of people equipped with
fishing lines. Some, like Patissot's, looked like simple bamboo canes;
others, in one piece, pointed their slender ends to the skies. They
looked like a forest of slender sticks, which mingled and clashed like
swords or swayed like masts over an ocean of broad-brimmed straw hats.

When the train started fishing rods could be seen sticking out of all the
windows and doors, giving to the train the appearance of a huge, bristly