ROD AND REEL. 139 



tlie strong nine-foot leader parted under the quick 

 stroke, and down into the depths went the trout, 

 with leader and flies streaming from his mouth. 



" Well," said John, as I swung myself around 

 so as to face him, " for twenty-seven years I 've 

 boated up and down the waters of this wilderness, 

 and rarely will you strike a lake or stream, from 

 the Horican to the St. Lawrence, above whose sur- 

 face I have not seen fish leap ; but never before 

 this day have I seen, on lake or stream, a spotted 

 trout as large as that which has just carried fly 

 and leader to the bottom. Well, let him go," he 

 continued ; " lie 'U manage, some way, to get that 

 hook out of his jaw, and live to take another fly. 

 And you and I will build our camp-fire some even- 

 ing next summer upon the shore of this pond 

 igain; and when the sun comes over those pines 

 there, I '11 warrant we '11 find the old fellow active 

 as ever." 



So speaking, he turned the boat about, and 

 headed toward the camp. That afternoon we lay 

 on the beach and watched the leaping trout 

 spoi-ting before us; or gazed, dreaming of absent 

 friends, into the deep blue sky, across whose ceru- 

 lean dome the snow-white clouds drifted, urged 

 silently onward by the pressure of invisible cur- 

 rents. The sun at last withdrew his beams. One 

 moment, and the pines that crested the western 

 slope were all ablaze. The next, gloomy and 



