Three men make rather tall claims about the trout in the inn. Describe how the claims become taller with successive claiment. What is the final revelation about the trout? very urgent!!
Answers
In this episode the narrator makes a witty satire at all the fishermen community who exaggerate their stories of catching fish. Usually they tell false tales to the listeners, especially the strangers about their fishing skills. The narrator describes the fishermen’s art of telling lies in a very humorous after a funny incident that happened at Wallingford. He and George went to a riverside inn for a rest and drink.
As they sat in the parlour in the company of an old man, introducing themselves they were travellers. In the parlour they saw old glass-case, fixed very high up above the chimney-piece, and containing a very big trout. Intrigued by the fish, they asked the old man if he knew how much that fish weighed. The old man told them it was an 18 pound and six ounces fish he had caught sixteen years ago. The narrator and George admired him for his skills. Then the old man left.
They were still looking at it, when the local carrier, who had just stopped at the inn, came to the door of the room with a pot of beer in his hand, and he also looked at the fish. The narrator told him they were strangers there. The carrier told them that the fish they were admiring so much he had caught it five years ago. After telling them a convincing story he left.
In this manner one after another everyman that came into the parlour told a different version of his tale and claim on the fish, including the owner of the inn. At last George in an attempt to look at the fish from close angle, stood on a chair. He lost his balance and fell; the fish case also fell and broke. The fish broke into thousand pieces. It turned out to be fish made out of plaster of Paris.