TROUT FISHING 



knee-deep already, a hint alas ! that the day means heat. 

 And there, to the initiated eye, is another and a darker hint 

 of glaring skies, perspiring limbs and empty creels. Small fish 

 are dimpling in the central eddies ; but here, in six inches of 

 water, on the very edge of the ford road, great tails and back- 

 fins are showing above the surface, and swirling suddenly 

 among the tufts of grass, sure sign that the large fish are pick- 

 ing up a minnow-breakfast at the same time that they warm 

 their backs, and do not mean to look at a fly for many an hour 

 to come. 



' Yet courage ; for on the rail of yonder wooden bridge sits, 

 chatting with a sun-browned nymph, her bonnet pushed over 

 her face, her hayrake in her hand, a river-god in coat of vel- 

 veteen, elbow on knee and pipe in mouth, and rising when he 

 sees us, lifts his wideawake, and holloas back a roar of comfort 

 to our mystic adjuration : — " Keeper ! Is the fly up ? " 



•"Mortial strong last night, gentlemen." 



' Wherewith he shall lounge up to us, landing-net in hand, 

 and we will wander up stream and away. 



' We will wander — for though the sun be bright, here are 

 good fish to be picked out of sharpe and stop holes — into the 

 water tables, ridged up centuries since into furrows forty feet 

 broad and five feet high, over which the crystal water sparkles 

 among the roots of the rich grass, and hurries down innumer- 

 able drains to find its parent stream between tufts of great blue 

 geranium, and spires of purple loose-strife, and the deUcate 

 white and pink comfrey-bells, and the avens — fairest and most 

 modest of all the water-side nymphs, who hangs her head all 

 day long in pretty shame, with a soft blush upon her tawny 

 cheek. But at the mouth of each of those drains, if we can get 

 our flies in, and keep ourselves unseen, we will have one cast 

 at least. For at each of them, on some sharp-rippling spot, 

 lies a great trout or two, waiting for beetle, caterpillar, and 

 whatsoever else may be washed from the long grass above. 

 There, and from brimming feeders, which slip along, weed- 

 choked, under white hawthorn hedges, and beneath the great 



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