AN UNFORTUNATE DAY. 53 



guide did the same, facing each other. For nearly 

 five minutes no? well, say three not a word 

 was spoken. The first to break the silence was 

 Cutting, and in these words : " Mr. Stevens, I'd 

 given three days' pay rather than had you lose 

 that trout : he was over six pounds " 



" Charles, I would have doubled your pay rather 

 than to have lost him. So much for using a last- 

 year's leader." 



Don't do it, my young friends, or old friends. 

 You may never have the occasion to regret doing 

 so, as I did that evening, and you may save a six- 

 pounder by not doing so. It might, you say, have 

 been something else if not that : true, but I doubt 

 it, for my fish was well hooked, and my guide cool 

 and collected, and nothing but a weak casting-line 

 cost me that fish. I purchase my flies and leaders 

 nowadays almost exclusively, the latter always, of 

 McBride, before mentioned. I like to write the 

 old gentleman's name (he is gone now, and his 

 daughter succeeds him in the business) : I never 

 saw him, but I know he was an honest man, and I 

 believe he loved the work he was engaged in ; at all 

 events, he did it well, and when once he had pro- 

 vided you with an outfit of these articles, to use a 

 vulgar expression, you will never " go back " on 

 him any more than they in some trying situation 



