244 ON SURREY HILLS. 



scarecrow perform that morning. One or two pre- 

 paratory flourishes, to get the line out, and the first 

 cast was delivered. " How's that ? " said Gentle. " A 

 yard short from the outside rising fish ! " " All 

 right, I'll hev it next time ! Where are 'em risin' 

 most?" " In the middle." " How's that ?" "Right!" 

 I answer, rising from my knees, " your gnat is 

 among them." It was, for in less than an hour from 

 the time his fly reached the shoal, he had a basket 

 of the finest dace we had ever seen. He was a most 

 disreputable figure to look at, was poor Gentle, 

 but clothes go for nothing ; it is the man one re- 

 gards. Gentle had got most of his schooling down 

 by the river : he could read and write fairly enough, 

 but he said that he had learnt more there than any- 

 where else. And in this he was right ; those who 

 pass all their time in close communion with Nature 

 and in careful observation of her many and various 

 manifestations get lifted above the life of ordinary 

 men. It was so with the simple but true-hearted 

 Gentle. 



That handsome fish, the roach, gives the angler 

 good sport summer and winter. Summer, of course, 

 is the time the general public prefer for fishing, and 



