CHAPTER XXVII. 



During; our absence tliere had l)eeu most persistent and 

 skillful lisliiug at Brandy Brook, but with " uuac'countable 

 misses,"— <* la Creedmoor. Indeed, that stream was a prob- 

 lem and m3'ster3^ Trout of fabulous si/e leaped and played 

 there daily before the e3^es of the eager C'aptain, Ijut with 

 hardl}' an exception, after the tirst day, thej^ refused every 

 proffered tly and bait of every description. The Captain 

 and the Senator, both veterans of the angle and ecpial to 

 almost wwy emergency in the art, were hopelessly baffled in 

 all their efforts. The}" discussed those perverse trout up and 

 down, horizontal!}' and diagonal!}' ; recalled and applied 

 all known facts and principles relating to the habits and 

 disposition of the trout family; tried, convicted and duly 

 sentenced tliem to be caught; and demonstrated each night, 

 before the full council of the camp-fire, that they of neces- 

 sity must succumb on the morrow to a shrewdly chosen or 

 newly concocted allurement. But each morrow the trout 

 woke up witli a new kink of their own, whereby the plans 

 of these valiant fishermen were brought to naught. Reu- 

 ben might smoke, and smoke, and thunderously " Ahem!" 

 as he nightly pondered over the perversity of Brandy 

 Brook trout; the Senator — as keen in a trout-hunt as in an 

 argument in a law^ court — might elucidate the principles 

 w^hich, according to undisputed testimony, guide the salmo 



