LET US GO AFIELD 



strung up as good a rod as the best maker in the 

 world ever made, appending as good a reel as ever 

 was made and using a tapered leader a better one 

 I never saw. Thereto I added a fly as much re- 

 sembling a grasshopper as might be. 



The water was cold when I stepped in cold, and 

 clear as crystal. The sky was blue, with some little 

 white clouds, and a strong wind was coming down 

 from the mountains where the Indians say the Old 

 Windmaker lives. I did not really much care wheth- 

 er I caught any trout or not. Not so, however, the 

 waiters on the bank, who were disposed to be utili- 

 tarian in their notions! 



I struck one fine fish and lost him without seeing 

 him at all, but round the very next bend, at a spot 

 which was absolutely ideal in every regard tell me, 

 have you not almost always been disappointed with 

 these ideal spots? I raised a regular story-book 

 trout in a story-book place. In these ideal surround- 1 

 ings, whether or not the rest of the picture was 

 ideal, I certainly played him to such effect that by 

 and by he was on the gravel bar two pounds and 

 better. 



"Come on down here!" called out a voice, by 

 this time a trifle more respectful. "They are jump- 

 ing all over." This from the feminine contingent, 

 who had always been a trifle vague as to how trout 



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