A SPORTSMAN'S EDEN. 



a subsequent offer of raw venison failed to console 

 him. So, in spite of the unfitness of my hazel 

 wand for such work, I had to try and throw a 

 fly. Flop it came on the water, and the trout 

 almost bolted again. But the second time he 

 stayed to look at this new lure, and, like many 

 a more civilized fish, he found its charms irre- 

 sistible. So we added a dish of trout that night 

 to the luxurious dinner of grouse and venison 

 and hot cake, which already awaited us ; and next 

 morning, ' bright and early,' as the Yankees say, 

 we struck camp, and began our climb towards 

 our new shooting-ground. We had not gone half 

 a mile before I found that, though it had not 

 been used that year, there was a trail to my peak, 

 and this was not the first time that Toma had 

 travelled it. Indeed, after a time, he confessed 

 that he had hunted there before, ten years ago, 

 but that the road was very bad for horses, and 

 there were not many sheep there. It certainly 

 was a villainous road, and so steep that it had, 

 almost all of it, to be done on foot. Even ' the 

 boy,' who used to anger me beyond endurance by 

 the stubborn laziness with which he stuck to his 

 poor devil of a pony in any circumstances, rather 

 than use his own legs, had, on this occasion, to 

 get off and walk. It almost consoled me for my 

 own weariness to see, for the first time, my cook 



