MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS 257 



is the nicest of all. It has places where the 

 angler can watch the trout and see his worm 

 taken, while he is hidden behind leaves, or lying 

 in tall meadow-sweet or some such undergrowth 

 of herbs. Even if he does not feel the thrill 

 and the rapt excitement, which he felt as a boy 

 when his line stopped and trembled in the stream 

 with a bite, or when he saw a trout open its 

 mouth and take his worm, he can still remember 

 what he used to feel in those early days, and 

 " beget that golden time again." He can enjoy, 

 too, more than he ever did before, the light 

 playing through the leaves upon the still water 

 of a clear pool, the running water sparkling in 

 the sun, the tinkling sound of little streams, and 

 the shade and the hot* summer's day. And even 

 still there is some satisfaction, when the burn 

 is low and clear, in outwitting the trout, small 

 as they are, for it is not to be done without 

 care, difficulty and effort. 



I need hardly add that fine drawn gut is proper 

 for burn fishing: in small burns two or three feet 

 of gut is enough, as the water is shallow, the 

 line is kept more perpendicular than horizontal, 

 and but little of it falls into the water. The 



R 



