CONTRARIES OF WEATHER AND SPORT 203 



clearing. But that is not the worst. I have said that 

 there was a difference this morning when I got up and 

 looked out. The sandy paths were dry, showing that 

 there had been no fresh rain in the night. Moreover, 

 the hillsides were open to view, the silver rills that 

 veined the rugged steeps were dwindling, there was a 

 blue sky, and great ranges of wooded or desolate moun- 

 tains were in clearly cut outline the first time since 

 the wet period set in. Over the shoulder of the huge 

 pyramid to the east there was actual sunshine, and the 

 fleecy clouds were high. So at last there was to be 

 an end to our mourning ; verily so, since the wind had 

 at last veered from south to north-west. Yet at this 

 very moment, and it is still an hour short of noon, a 

 heavy storm is making uproar without, the rain is 

 descending in torrents, and there is the added discom- 

 fort of a shiver-breeding atmosphere. At any rate, we 

 are under cover, and need not issue forth unless we 

 choose. This is better than what must have been the 

 fate of poor S., who went to the fjelds just before the 

 break of fine weather to shoot ryper. He has been 

 literally up in the clouds, and the birds will have been 

 lying so low as to give points to " 'Brer rabbit." Con- 

 demned to the solitude of a rude saeter, a hut in the 

 most primitive sense of the term, he must have fur- 

 nished a capital example of the English gentleman 

 who forsakes the seductions of a London season 

 and the luxuries of a Piccadilly club for the sake 

 of sport. 



To be sure, in our case, this reverse is only part of 

 fisherman's luck, and we may be and no doubt are 

 thankful that there was a fair fortnight, to begin with, 

 placed on the right side of the account. Sport was, 

 for various reasons, not by any means up to par, but 

 we can, on this miserable Sabbath day, in our com- 



