“In short, my wife woke me at six o’clock and I jumped out of bed, hastily put on my trousers and jersey, washed my face and jumped on board Delila.  But it was too late, for when I arrived at my hole it was already occupied!  Such a thing had never happened to me in three years, and it made me feel as if I were being robbed under my own eyes.  I said to myself:  ‘Confound it all! confound it!’ And then my wife began to nag at me.  ’Eh! what about your ‘Casque a meche’?  Get along, you drunkard!  Are you satisfied, you great fool?’ I could say nothing, because it was all true, but I landed all the same near the spot and tried to profit by what was left.  Perhaps after all the fellow might catch nothing and go away.

“He was a little thin man in white linen coat and waistcoat and a large straw hat, and his wife, a fat woman, doing embroidery, sat behind him.

“When she saw us take up our position close to them she murmured:  ’Are there no other places on the river?’ My wife, who was furious, replied:  ’People who have any manners make inquiries about the habits of the neighborhood before occupying reserved spots.’

“As I did not want a fuss, I said to her:  ’Hold your tongue, Melie.  Let them alone, let them alone; we shall see.’

“Well, we fastened Delila under the willows and had landed and were fishing side by side, Melie and I, close to the two others.  But here, monsieur, I must enter into details.

“We had only been there about five minutes when our neighbor’s line began to jerk twice, thrice; and then he pulled out a chub as thick as my thigh; rather less, perhaps, but nearly as big!  My heart beat, the perspiration stood on my forehead and Melie said to me:  ’Well, you sot, did you see that?’

“Just then Monsieur Bru, the grocer of Poissy, who is fond of gudgeon fishing, passed in a boat and called out to me:  ’So somebody has taken your usual place, Monsieur Renard?’ And I replied:  ’Yes, Monsieur Bru, there are some people in this world who do not know the rules of common politeness.’

“The little man in linen pretended not to hear, nor his fat lump of a wife, either.”

Here the president interrupted him a second time:  “Take care, you are insulting the widow, Madame Flameche, who is present.”

Renard made his excuses:  “I beg your pardon, I beg your pardon; my anger carried me away.  Well, not a quarter of an hour had passed when the little man caught another chub, and another almost immediately, and another five minutes later.

“Tears were in my eyes, and I knew that Madame Renard was boiling with rage, for she kept on nagging at me:  ’Oh, how horrid!  Don’t you see that he is robbing you of your fish?  Do you think that you will catch anything?  Not even a frog, nothing whatever.  Why, my hands are tingling, just to think of it.’

“But I said to myself:  ’Let us wait until twelve o’clock.  Then this poacher will go to lunch and I shall get my place again.  As for me, Monsieur le President, I lunch on that spot every Sunday.  We bring our provisions in Delila.  But there!  At noon the wretch produced a chicken in a newspaper, and while he was eating, he actually caught another chub!