THE BLOODY DOCTOR 101 



deceive the trout by the primitive dodge of tying 

 a red thread round the shank qf a dark fly. So I 

 waded out, and fell to munching a frugal sandwich 

 and watching Nature, not without a cigarette. 



Now Nature is all very well. I have nothing 

 to say against her of a Sunday, or when trout are 

 not rising. But she was no comfort to me now. 

 Smiling she gazed on my discomfiture. The 

 lovely lines of the hills, curving about the loch, 

 and with their deepest dip just opposite where I 

 sat, were all of a golden autumn brown, except in 

 the violet distance. The grass of Parnassus grew 

 thick and white around me, with its moonlight tint 

 of green in the veins. On a hillside by a brook 

 the countryfolk were winning their hay, and their 

 voices reached me softly from far off. On the 

 loch the marsh-fowl flashed and dipped, the wild 

 ducks played and dived and rose ; first circling 

 high and higher, then, marshalled in the shape of 

 a V, they made for Alcmoor. A solitary heron 

 came quite near me, and tried his chance with the 

 fish, but I think he had no luck. All this is 

 pleasant to remember, and I made rude sketches 



