222 TROUT FISHING 



a discoverer. Probably, indeed, the good fish which 

 he had lost early that morning was the topmost 

 of my five. 



I was still sitting on my basket meditating whether 

 those big trout were, after all, quite the untutored 

 beings I had hoped, when the Second Angler arrived, 

 to take up a watchful position some way lower down. 

 A common boredom (the rise had either petered out 

 or not properly begun) caused us to drift together 

 eventually, and to converse awhile. From our 

 talk I gathered that the corner was not only the 

 favourite resort of, but had even been named after, 

 the Second Angler. I became doubly certain that 

 I was not its discoverer. 



Presently, the Second Angler having gone down- 

 stream, arrived the Third Angler. " Yes," he 

 said, " I had hold of a good one there this morning," 

 pointing to the spot where No. 2 (of my five big ones) 

 had been displaying his massive charms. The 

 Third Angler confessed to not being a patient fisher- 

 man, and departed, after assuring me that the bottom 

 of the water was the best place thus early in the 

 rise. Soon after I went away myself to get some 

 tea, as nothing was doing and the fly had not yet 

 begun. 



I stayed away too long. The Fourth Angler, 

 who was hard at work when I came back, and who 

 landed two or three fish while I was getting to work 



