DAYS IN DOVE DALE II 



winked it, in fact, wagged his tail, and allowed 

 my tempting flies to pass on. 



I had been advised that it is an excellent 

 plan sometimes, when the occasion serves, to 

 cast your fly over to the opposite bank, and 

 then humour it gently and innocently down 

 off the bank, so that it may fall just like a 

 natural fly softly on the water within a foot 

 or two of your trout's nose that is certain 

 death \ the wisest and most cautious old trout 

 that ever was has been caught by such a 

 stratagem as that. 



Well, here the occasion did serve admirably. 

 My trout was just a yard from a gently sloping 

 bank, and all I had to do was to follow the 

 above given advice. 



I threw accordingly, and with my usual 

 luck caught fast in a sturdy thistle ! I did 

 not wish to risk another cast by having a fight 

 with the thistle and be worsted as I had been 

 by the oak, so I took a quarter of a mile walk 

 to some stepping-stones, and when I got up 

 to my thistle, I was not a little chagrined to 

 find that he had already let go my fly, which 

 was quietly dangling down the water waiting my 

 return. 



