9 8 



with the needful pause of the line in air behind her, 

 was admirable. She did, in fact, at the outset what 

 many an experienced angler has never thoroughly 

 acquired. Lammy, on the contrary, was hard to 

 coach ; that is her nature, too ; she always was so 

 impetuous. From the bare line they advanced to a 

 gut cast and hackled fly with filed-off barb, and Blind 

 could deftly drop the palmer into the saucer at twelve 

 yards days before her sister could get out the line with 

 anything like an approach to straightness. 



The time arrived for applied science, and cousin 

 director bade the girls don those waders which they 

 had clamoured to use even on the lawn, and come away 

 to the stream. It was fortunate that they had a 

 shallow which, for practical essays in casting, was a 

 nice compromise, as a position for throwing a fly, be- 

 tween the unnatural level of the lawn and the elevated 

 banks of an ordinary trout river. There was a bridge 

 spanning a smart run of knee-deep water, and above 

 a beautiful broad shallow, aglow with white ranunculus 

 blossoms, growing out of yellow sand held together 

 with small gravel perpetually washed by crystal clear 

 water. The damsels had to do their best with 

 shortened walking dresses until certain smart clothes, 

 about which there had been many whisperings, came 

 down from the tailor ; and in they went, skirts not- 

 withstanding, like merry children as the stream rippled 

 and gurgled four inches or so above the feet, which 

 were encased in dainty rubber combination waders. 



Bless the maiden, how delighted Blind was in de- 

 livering her first real cast with a real artificial fly on real 

 water ! They had not yet attempted the mysteries 

 of dry fly ; a fat alder on a No. I hook was honour 

 enough for a beginning. A red spinner, in compliment 

 to one who was a spectator, first chosen, alighted and 



