32 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



trying for too much, and the pinch of the mishap is that it 

 has reduced my stock of Mayflies to a solitary specimen, 

 \vith yet another hour of daylight. 



That unfortunate trout will be telegraphing danger to 

 all his relatives and acquaintances, unless he has darted 

 into a quiet corner to persevere if haply he may rub the 

 hook out of his jaws; in which operation I wish him 

 speedy success. 



It is better after this blunder to shift quarters for a few 

 minutes, and take care that the fault does not recur. But 

 how true it is that misfortunes do not come singly ! Not 

 live minutes elapse before a wild attempt at an impossible 

 cast deprives me of my last Mayfly. I have left it driven 

 hard into the overhanging bough of an alder that any tyro 

 should have avoided. With varying success I now move 

 up stream, picking out a trout here and a troutlet there 

 with an orange palmer and a handsome blue dun. The 

 still summer night steals on apace, and the half-hour re- 

 maining must be devoted to the broader part where the 

 ladies witnessed my discomfiture. In point of numbers 

 that half-hour turns out to be the most remunerative of 

 the whole day ; the trout rise freely at a tiny white moth, 

 and are partial to a small coachman ; twice I have a brace 

 of young fish on the line at once. 



The lower part of the stream I am compelled to spare, 

 and even then it is dark before I have arranged my spoil 

 on a broad kitchen platter, artistically disposing the finest 

 fish to catch the eye of the ladies chatting in the homely 

 parlour of Brawl Mill. Supper being eaten, I plod up the 

 creaking stairs, pondering that to tire the arms, stiffen the 

 back, punish the right hand, develop the power of the 



