"The Little Fishes."

The narrator goes fishing with his Uncle Silas, excited by Silas's tales of pike "as big as hippopottomassiz;" while Silas consumes large quantities of "neck-oil," the boy is urged to keep quiet and not be "a-ompolodgin' all the time."

Eventually a large fish appears but, with all the bait gone, Silas falls in the river trying to catch it by hand.

Published in:

• The Evening Standard (August 17, 1956)
• Sugar for the Horse (1957)
• Country Bunch: A Collection by Miss Read (1963)
• Best Fishing Stories (1965)
• Great British Short Stories (1974)
• Gone Fishing (1995)
• The Complete My Uncle Silas Stories (Bloomsbury ebook, 2016)