62 Sporting Sketches in Pen and Pencil. 



little blue dun — only one. You daren't use two flies here. I stoop 

 down and pitcli it up on the other side of the weed where I see a good 

 fish rising — One, ah ! he looked at it. Two, another look. Beware, 

 beware, my spotted friend ! I fear you are doomed to smell the inside 

 of my creel. Ah ! I thought so ! 



"Dash my wig, he's a good one, Penton." 



" Tidy fish, sir. Don't let him go up, or he'll disturb the water." 



" Ah ! and if he goes down he'U run through the hatch. Now he 

 comes through the weeds, and on this side, I don't so much care. Steady 

 with the net, now. That's it ! So — a pound and a quarter, good — I 

 thought he was bigger. They fight well here. Run to Mr. Crayon; I 

 see he has a fish in the hatch." 



A few flicks to dry the fly, and I cover another. He is only a little 

 one, and returns to the water, as do two or three more nine-inchers. 

 They'll make nice trout next year. 



" Confound that fish ! I believe he's a big one, but he won't come at 

 me, though he takes the natural fly fast." 



" I believe that's the fish Mr. M. lost the day 'fore yesterday, and he 

 is a good one ; 'tween two or three pound," says Penton, who has landed 

 a nice little fish for Crayon. 



" No ; he won't come. There's another just above, and quite as big. 

 That's over him and in him," as I erect the rod in a lovely curve. "Ah ! 

 confound him ! He's into the weed ; I'll lose him for a certainty. Take 

 the rod, and I wiU stir him up." 



I pull up my stockings and walk in ; it isn't over two feet deep there. 

 But the weed is thick and matted in mid-stream, and here the fish has 

 taken refuge. Gently I push the net under the weed. If I can get sight 

 of him I'll land him, and chance the tackle. Gently, gently,! Ah ! I 

 touched him, no doubt, for right under my nose darts out a fish of close 

 on 31b., and goes up stream like a rocket, carrying off my fly in his bolt. 



" My eye ! he was a topper." Well, it's no use fretting, so I whip on 

 another fly, and soon stick in a two-pounder, which comes out. Then I get 

 three or four more stores, for, as the three-card man said, " We can't pick 

 them " here. — By the way, that is a good story. G. M., the betting man, 



