THE ANGLER AND THE BRIDGE 279 



the pool came a trout of five ounces, no less ; out of 

 the pot one of four ounces, and then the fly, drifted 

 down from above the bridge, was seized by another 

 quarter-pounder just below the step. It was a great 

 fishing, and the little bridge is an ever-welcome vision. 

 Welcomed also, though with a tinge of melancholy, is 

 the image of" the brick bridge " such was its honoured 

 though not distinguished name. More than one good 

 trout has succumbed to a red spinner or red quill placed, 

 not without difficulty, where the stream rippled slightly 

 over the old beam. More than one jack has seized 

 minnow or dace in the deep pool below and paid the 

 penalty. And once there was noble sport with roach, 

 drifting pellets of paste down from above with a fly- 

 rod, the finest gut, and a fly-hook stripped of its 

 feathers. But, alas ! one day the old bridge collapsed 

 utterly, and the new wooden one seems an interloper. 

 Even the fish despise it, and have gone away. It is 

 melancholy to think that sad mortality will undo all 

 our old bridges at the last. But many of them will last 

 our time, and maybe a bit longer, so we need not 

 repine. 



