Out of the Chalk. 87 



And, alack for the trout, these worthy sportsmen know 

 exactly where they lie, so that unless they shift their quarters 

 during the brief space of peace remaining, a sorry Good 

 Friday will it be for them. This is why, in good humour, 

 and secretly meditating doughty deeds, the anglers sit down 

 to their table d'hote in quiet Farningham, where nothing but 

 the monotonous music of the millstream breaks the evening 

 stillness, each diner, nevertheless, religiously keeping his 

 own secrets, and resolving, not exactly, perhaps, to steal 

 a march upon his fellows, so much as not by any means to 

 be caught napping at the critical moment. 



But for this trifling explanation you might suppose that 

 the persons stealthily emerging from the hotel at the break 

 of day had been guilty of something, the discovery of which 

 they are desirous to avoid. They are merely anxious, let us 

 say, not to interfere with the slumbers of their brother 

 anglers of course from the purest motives of humanity. The 

 first grey of dawn still lingers over the valley and upon the 

 hillsides when the first angler appears cautiously on the 

 lawn. He glances around and notes with satisfaction that 

 he is not forestalled, and that the wind blows down stream, 

 and comes therefore from that quarter so dear to sports- 

 men. The lithe rod is put together in a twinkling, the cast 

 already prepared is affixed to the line, and the sharp whirr of 

 the revolving winch wakes up the birds which densely 

 populate the neighbourhood. Soon other devotees of the 

 gentle art arrive, and finding that they have not been able 

 to lead off the operations of the day, as they had last night 

 so resolutely determined, good-humouredly swallow their 

 disappointment and fall-to with their weapons. But the 

 fortunate gentleman down the lawn has not been twenty 

 minutes at work before he has brought three trout to bank, 

 and, like a sensible man and a knowing angler, hastens on 

 to the lower meadow, to follow up his advantage. 



