114 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



for the clear space a few yards farther out that I 

 prayed. It was not long after that my friend found 

 himself in an anxious frame of mind. He hooked 

 a large trout, which came home on him so suddenly 

 that he had not time to reel up his line, and in his 

 extremity he stretched his tall form into the air and 

 lifted up his pole to an incredible height. He 

 checked the trout before it got under the boat, but 

 dared not come down an inch, and then began his 

 amusing further elongation in reaching for his reel 

 with one hand, while he carried it ten feet into the 

 air with the other. A step-ladder would perhaps 

 have been more welcome to him just then than at 

 any other moment during his life. But the trout was 

 saved, though my friend's buttons and suspenders 

 suffered. 



We learned a new trick in fly-fishing here, worth 

 disclosing. It was not one day in four that the 

 trout would take the fly on the surface. When 

 the south wind was blowing and the clouds threat- 

 ened rain, they would at times, notably about three 

 o'clock, rise handsomely. But on all other occa- 

 sions it was rarely that we could entice them up 

 through the twelve or fifteen feet of water. Earlier 

 in the season they are not so lazy and indifferent, 

 but the August languor and drowsiness were now 

 upon them. So we learned by a lucky accident to 

 fish deep for them, even weighting our leaders with 

 a shot, and allowing the flies to sink nearly to the 

 bottom. After a moment's pause we would draw 

 them slowly up, and when half or two thirds of 



