CHAPTER II 



SOME TINY WATERS 



It would take mc several volumes to record at 

 all adequately my gratitude to the lesser streams 

 which have given me delightful days in various parts 

 of the country. Some of them have wandered 

 slowly through the heavy land of the Midlands, and 

 their trout have been few and far between, but all 

 the more prized for that. When the worm — for I 

 take no shame in owning to the worm for some of 

 these brooks — has been cannily dropped through 

 the opening between the thorn branches, has trickled 

 down the narrow neck into the little round pool, 

 and then come to rest, there is a time of anxious 

 expectation before you decide that the pool is tenant- 

 less, and that you had better go on to the next likely 

 spot. Or you may have the good fortime of an 

 almost immediate bite, which takes the form of a 

 preliminary twitch, another, and then of a steady 

 pull, which makes the line cut the water as the fish 

 moves off with the bait, probably taking it back to 

 the retreat whence he emerged. If you strike when 

 he is fairly on the run with it you ought to have him, 



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