10 ^renant!^ of tiie Evnu 



brook, had also been lost sight of, but 

 it did not matter now he had caught 

 his first trout. 



For half the forenoon, the boy sat 

 on the door-step admiring the speckled 

 beauty, with his wonderful deep green 

 mottled back, and his red and yellow 

 sides, and he was loath to part with him, 

 even to let him go into the frypan for 

 his dinner. This fish seemed almost too 

 good to fry. He was the boy's first 

 trout. 



This day marked an epoch in the life 

 of the boy, for from that time a com- 

 panionship with the little brook began, 

 that he has never outgrown. Nothing, 

 even now, rests the tired thought-racked 

 brain, like the low plashing and purling 

 of a tiny silver stream. 



Before the boy caught his first trout, 

 he had been contented to wade in the 



