A LUCKY EVENING. 131 



to bear defeat when there is no witness of our failure. 

 Solitude is the angler's delight^ and the expression on 

 the face of the stream derived from swirls and eddies is 

 as familiar to him as that of his best friend, banishing 

 all feeling of loneliness. 



The idea that someone is killing time on the bank is 

 irksome and detracts from one's freedom, so after a 

 second refusal of our friend's services we heard the 

 clink of a clay pipe against the rock and saw him no 

 more, but at the finish the laugh was rather on his side. 



To return to the subject : — 



It was about 4 o'clock on this October evening, and 

 the sun,aftergivingaparting glance, had just disappeared 

 behind the trees which topped the opposite bank, placing 

 the stream in that still cool shade so favourable to the 

 angler. 



The air had been sharp through the day, and having 

 fished without success we had moved up with the idea 

 of giving the last hour of light to this pool, thinking 

 that, as the atmosphere had become softer, there might 

 still be a chance of sport. 



The pool started about fifty yards below a high stone 

 bridge, and extended to a length of a hundred yards or 

 so, then turned a sharp corner and subsided into a long 

 uninteresting flat. 



The water at the top of the pool was broken by 

 large boulders at the bottom, and then finished in 

 swirls and eddies until, as it were, exhausted. 



The high rocky bank, faced with trees and shrubs, 



k2 



