66 THE SUMMER 



for a moment from joining the party, 

 but you have at last really devised a new 

 scheme for circumventing the ways of 

 the wily trout which cannot possibly fail, 

 so that the next day you are again by the 

 brook. 



An angler, however, must not be too 

 sensitive to trouble and ill-luck. Worse 

 things than an empty creel, a disappoint- 

 ed family, the heat, and a plague of flies 

 may await him. There are days when 

 the tail fly of your cast will persist in 

 hiding its barb in your tweed jacket,] ust 

 between the shoulders, or, worse still, in 

 such a part of your trousers that partial 

 disrobement is necessary before it can 

 be extricated. In your struggles to liber- 

 ate yourself from either such ignomini- 

 ous situation, while you are glancing 

 round to see that no one is looking, an- 

 other hook becomes attached to your 

 elbow, and a third runs into your ear. 

 Having successfully got out of the diffi- 



