ROD IN WALES 27 



taken the Palmer. The March Brown 

 they would have nothing to do with, 

 and this struck me as being more extra- 

 ordinary after what Amos had said. 

 Was it possible that he had played me 

 false ? Amos,who had been my teacher 

 and guide in all things pertaining to in- 

 sect or finny lore. He always told his 

 " whackers ' ' with such a ring of honesty 

 that they became quite a part of the man, 

 and, after all, they had done no one any 

 harm. " Fourteen years ago," I said, al- 

 most aloud, to myself, " it is since I had 

 my first lesson with a coarse, home-made 

 outfit still a cherished ornament on 

 the walls of my room and my red- 

 whiskered friend." During the earlier 

 part of that time I had often managed 

 to make "top score," much to Amos' 

 delight ; but latterly I had had a growing 

 feeling that he no longer considered me 

 a novice, but an equal, if not a rival, in 

 the art, and that he would never fail to 



