PROVING THE RULE. 



Before and during the rain, fishes swim 

 near the surface and rise more than usual. 



After ten days of the finest August 

 weather the morning broke fair, but the 

 wind was shifting uneasily in the south- 

 erly quadrants; a veil of high cirrus drew 

 slowly across the sky which passed with 

 the hours from deep to paler shades of 

 blue, through pearls and grays, to a leaden 

 sameness. Rain was in the air, and it 

 would be welcome and much to our pur- 

 pose; for hath not old Izaac written, — 'if 

 he hit to make his fly right, and have the 

 luck to hit, also, where there is store of 

 Trouts, a dark day, and a right wind, he 

 will catch such store of them as will 

 encourage him. . .' Certain it was that 

 we should find the water in the river both 

 low and warm, and reason assured us that 

 the fish would be seeking the coolness of 

 springs and lesser streams, where they 

 would need but rain to stir them into 

 activity. There the big ones, free to pick 

 and choose, were bound to be assembled, 

 — neither glutted with food, nor lying too 

 deep to see the fly, — their eyes alert for 

 113 

 8 



