128 FISHERMAN'S LUCK 



After struggling to act deliberately, being him- 

 self of a precipitate nature, he set about selecting 

 his flies, and having at length selected two that 

 he thought fairly good, he laid them down on the 

 grass to look through his book for something 

 better, but finding nothing, he turned to pick up 

 those he had laid down, only to find they had 

 mysteriously vanished. Then he had a struggle 

 with naughty words, and at last concluded that 

 "precipitation is a fault, but deliberation in a 

 person of precipitate disposition is a vice." 



Having exhausted his fly-book in casting flies 

 over that ouananiche which the fish would not 

 look at, he was about to give up in despair. 



" At this psychological moment I heard behind 

 me a voice of hope the song of a grasshopper. 

 I believed that he was the destined lure for that 

 ouananiche, but it was hard to persuade him to 

 fulfil his destiny. I slapped at him with my hat, 

 but he was not there ; I grasped at him on the 

 bushes, and brought away 'nothing but leaves.' 

 At last he made his way to the very edge of the 

 water, and poised himself on a stone, with his legs 

 tucked in for a long leap and a bold flight to the 

 other side of the river. I made a desperate grab 

 at it, and caught the grasshopper. . . . When that 

 kri-karee went floating down the stream, the 

 ouananiche was surprised. It was the I4th of 

 September, and he had supposed the grasshopper 

 season was over. The unexpected temptation was 

 too strong for him. He rose with a rush, and in 



