36 THE JONATHAN PAPERS 



&quot; I think you said that the trout bit at 

 dawn.&quot; Continued silence warned me that I 

 had said enough, and I tactfully changed the 

 subject: &quot;What I am sorry for is the birds 

 nests up in those fields. How do the eggs ever 

 hatch in ice water ! And how do the straw 

 berries ever ripen, in cold storage every night 

 ugh ! Let s go back and get some hot coffee 

 and go to bed!&quot; 



And that is my one experience with dawn 

 fishing. But Jonathan, reacting from the 

 experience with the temper of the true en 

 thusiast, still maintains that trout do bite at 

 dawn. Perhaps they do. But for me, no more 

 early-dewy meadows, except to look at. 



Those hours of dawn fishing were the hard 

 est work I did during the week. A lazy week, 

 in truth, and an irresponsible one. Every one 

 who can should snatch such a week and see 

 what it does for him. In some ways it was 

 better than camping, because camping, unless 

 you have guides, is undoubtedly hard work, 

 especially if you keep moving work that 

 one would never grudge, yet hard work never 

 theless. The omitting of the night camp cut 

 out practically all the work and made it more 



