THE EVENING 87 



chance fish), and a sherry spinner, and one or two 

 other things. The period ends with the decoy trout 

 not quite so exuberant as they were and a winged 

 red quill on my line. 



I come now, having left the decoys, to the third 

 period. This begins with me sitting on my basket 

 at a bend in the stream favourable to observation, 

 and saying to myself that the two light-coloured 

 duns were one of Nature's accidents. I then tell 

 myself that I shall do no good by wasting any more 

 energy till the rise proper begins. The wise man sits 

 on his basket, and takes the gut ends out of the eyes 

 of flies which he has been changing. So, this decided, 

 I spring up and rush feverishly to the top of the 

 water to see if the evening rise is beginning there. 

 As I go I change the red quill (which has not yet 

 touched the water) for a blue upright. It is a 

 fumbling business to change a fly as you hurry 

 along, but it saves time perhaps. As I come back 

 from the top of the water the blue upright is changed 

 for a sherry spinner, because, of course, that is the 

 fly that is going to do the trick when the fish begin. 

 So the third period ends, with me sitting on the 

 basket and a sherry spinner stuck in a ring. 



The fourth period begins with me standing watch- 

 ful at a bend of the stream, thoughtfully changing 

 the sherry spinner for a blue upright, a fly in which 

 I have the utmost confidence for evening work. 



