DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 107 



CHAPTER X 



HAMPSHIRE GRA\T:nsG — AN UNLUCKY JUMP — NURSING 

 A GRAYLING AND WAITING FOR TiiE KEEPER 



'Have you any engagement for Friday of next week, 



dad ? Mr called on me to-day, and, as he was 



lea\4ng, said he hoped you were weU, and then asked 

 me if I thought you would hke to have another try 

 for his grayhng, I told him I felt sure you would, 

 and that our failure on our last visit would only make 

 you the more anxious to tr}^ again.' 



'Well, Phil,' I rephed, 'it was really very kind 

 of him. I don't think there is any engagement impor- 

 tant enough to keep me from going. I am glad you are 

 coming, too, for you may have supposed from our 

 last \'i5it that there were no fish or, if any, that they 

 were few and far between.' 



*0h no, dad; I quite believe the fish are there.' 



*I should think they are, my boy. Why, I would 

 give up a day's pheasant shootmg for an hour among 

 those grayling. They are the biggest in all Hamp- 

 shire.' 



We are told that grayUng were brought to many 

 of our streams by our Friday-fasting forefathers to 

 pro\ide food and sport during the months when 

 the other members of the salmonidat family are out 

 of season. The wisdom of this step is doubted by 

 many, so far as it affects present-day sport, but 

 I would not part with the excuse to be by the river- 

 side, fly rod in hand, waiting their rising midst the 

 glories of a November morning, when the sun makes 

 its fight, becomes conqueror and drives the mists 

 away, and then, before there is time to see half the 

 pictures that stand revealed, up come the flies to 



