DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 23 



then another as best suited the necessaty operation. 

 The position I hked the least was that from which 

 I could not see the rent nor its repairer, and could only 

 guess its measure from the time I had to lie with my 

 nose tickled by the grasses. 



When the stream was hidden its varying voice 

 came up to tell us the nature of its channel. Some- 

 times hopeful gurglings came so invitingly that I had 

 to break my way through all impediments and scramble 

 down high banks clothed with ferns of numerous 

 varieties. These had growTi to great perfection under 

 the fostering shade of overhanging boughs that had 

 a dome above of huge limbs of trees, the leaves of which 

 could be heard rustling in the %\ind, but not a breath 

 came to this dowmstairs fairyland. The complaining 

 voice of a disturbed nesting-bird sounds loud and 

 harsh where the whispers of the stream and rustling 

 leaves make music; but breaks must come. They 

 sometimes came with the splashing of a prize that was 

 fighting to clear itself from the stretching hair that 

 held it prisoner, and this was sure to bring do\\Ti 

 through the bushes in the sweetest key of all : 'Is it 

 a big one, Phil?' 



I love to watch fish in crystal pools almost as much 

 as I like catching them., and there were some really 

 good ones here, quite unsuspicious of nw presence, 

 that probably had never been tempted with an arti- 

 ficial fly. They were bus}'' making spluttering snatches 

 at the m.ore indiscreet members of a host of gnats 

 that hovered and gambolled near the surface of the 

 stream. Brook trout, even when only of minnow 

 size, are perfect in shape and colouring, and it's a 

 fascinating sight to see a shoal of tliem vying with 

 each other at jumps for flies, so fascinating that your 

 sympathies go out to the little fellows that try their 

 hardest to jump as high and witli the same succe.ss 

 as their bigger brothers do. You ma}/ watch a scene 

 full of happy life like this until the desire to kill is 



