CLEAR WATERS 



occasion mere children. A heavy rain that night and 

 rising water robbed me of my second day. But I 

 could bear even that now. I should have preferred 

 perhaps to have taken the salmon back to Llanfair- 

 fechan instead of only the sea trout and the minor 

 fry, as it v/ould have made an impression on a family 

 innocent of these things, such as a mere narrative 

 supported by figures in avoirdupois could not do. 

 My father realised something at any rate of its import. 

 But my mother who, though she ate a great many of 

 my trout in after years, never grasped anything asso- 

 ciated with the catching of them, merely remarked 

 that she was glad I had caught one salmon at least, as 

 she thought the clause about the trout in my letter 

 of permission just a little shabby ! 



Yet upon the whole I think the dinner in Bangor 

 gave greater satisfaction than would even the ex- 

 hibition of the salmon in the domestic circles. For 

 the other boy guests who had been some time at a 

 public school were no doubt prepared to be patron- 

 ising. My host, moreover, decided that we would say 

 nothing to them about the keeper's assistance. And 

 I dare say I comported myself as if a salmon was an 

 everyday occurrence. 



School life in those days, when there was often no 

 Easter vacation at all, or a very short one, and the 

 summer hohdays began at the end of June and closed 

 in mid August, was dead against trout-fishing. The 

 west country streams had generally run to nothing, and 

 the trout in any case waxed indifferent, while as for 

 the Kennet, it presented a soHd surface from bank 

 to bank of flowering weeds, upon which you could 

 32 



