MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE. 



95 



The farmer capped my story of what had just occurred, by telHng 

 me that on one occasion a stoat drove eight rabbits in succession 

 from the neighbouring Daj'lesford woods, to the field where he 

 was working, and so disabled them before his eyes, that he was able 

 to secure them all ; and there was no knowing how many more 

 additions to his larder might have been supplied in this unusual 

 manner, had not a keeper suddenly appeared and ended the rabbit- 

 hunter's life. 



Seeing my basket nearly empty, the farmer invited me to try his 

 portion of the brook, which is situated at a considerable distance 

 from the place where we were sitting. He said, from what he had 

 heard going on that morning, he had reason to believe that large 

 fish were jumping in sheer light-heartedness. I asked if they 

 could possibly be trout, but he replied No ! No ! he was certain 

 they were not trout, as he had 

 never heard of any there; he felt 

 confident they were "Jacks." So 

 next morning found me with troll- 

 ing tackle in my neighbour's field, 

 under the impression that the 

 sounds which had attrated him 

 proceeded from other things 

 than fish. I was in the act of 

 adjusting a dead gudgeon on my 

 hook, when suddenly a May-fly, 

 the first I had seen that year, flew 

 by, and I had hardly secured it 

 when a tremendous splash in a 

 corner close at hand filled me with 

 astonishment, as I had never 



heard anything resembling it in the brook before. I quickly 

 changed my tactics, and in almost less than no time a May-fly was 

 fluttering in the corner whence the unusual noise proceeded. It 

 hardly touched the water when down it went arid with it my hook 



THE MAY-FLY. 



