160 LAST 



the greatest assistance to him in this 

 branch of the art, for she could catch the 

 stealthy corncrake as it glided through 

 the meadow grass, or pounce upon a 

 mallard when the flocks came into the 

 backwaters in the dusk of evening. 

 Sometimes, too, when " Old Peter " was 

 fishing on the moors, the dog would 

 bring him a grouse which she had sprung 

 upon as it crouched in the heather. And 

 so the old angler laid by a store of fea- 

 thers to be tied into flies during winter 

 evenings or hours of leisure. 



Although his power of endurance 

 was still remarkable, although he could 

 still feel and enjoy the thrill of 



" The running line, the straining rod," 

 his fishing gradually became, as it has 

 done with so many others, "a sort of 

 solemn sacrament and withdrawal from 

 the world, just as the aged read their 

 Bibles." And there came a time when 

 those who knew him noticed that his 



