THE ARTIST GOES A-FISHING 



Friday the twenty-fifth. 



The morning opened clear with Uttle frost, the matin mist 

 rising from the prairie as the sun reached the horizon, and permit- 

 ting a clear view of its disk, lemon gold through the haze. 



Fred and Jay departed immediately after breakfast to Yellow- 

 stone, Fred to be gone for two days. William and Art took their 

 way up the river for fish, and any duck that might come their 

 way. The camp deserted before eight o'clock, the artist spent a 

 long morning alone, elaborating an evening sketch till the return 

 of the fishers some time after one, with five fine trout and a gray- 

 ling. The heaviest of the trout in the morning's catch weighed 

 three and three-quarters pounds. The average throughout was 

 a trifle over three pounds. The catch was made on a No. 10 

 Reuben Wood fly, and a No. 8 Jock Scott. Wild geese were 

 reported by the fishers as having passed close overhead while 

 they were close under a bank where the geese did not see them. 



In the afternoon the colonel of the camp took out the artist^ 

 who, besides being hard of hearing is chronically and absent- 

 mindedly engrossed in the admiration of the beauties about him. 

 Consequently the colonel as skipper of the transrivum expedition 

 had his troubles with the crew, to say nothing of a leaky boat and 

 frequent shallows, which, the crew failing to announce them, at such 

 times being most deeply absorbed in the unfolding vistas of the 

 loveliest little river in the country, necessitated the skipper's 

 quite frequently stepping overboard and towing the boat, foremast 

 hand and all. 



At the fishing grounds, with kindly authority, the artist was 

 initiated by William into the mysteries of bending on a leader and 

 its complement of flies, and proceeded in as amateurish a fashion 

 as could well be conceived, to do his best to master the art of 

 casting a fly with a trifle less noise than if he were pitching a ten- 

 penny nail into the water. William's patience was infinite and 

 his large-souled unselfishness in posting his scholar on the most 

 promising water is a sportsmanlike example to all true anglers. 

 Within ten minutes the artist laid aside his rod the better to 



Page 60 



