BROWN WATERS 



ten o'clock. The evening rise holds him 

 till his flies cannot be seen, but only the 

 broken reflections where they fall: an 

 expanse of time has slipped away which 

 would have served to carry him, on 

 leaden wing, through a penitential 

 round of duties, calls, teas, a family 

 dinner, he has not noted its passage. 

 In the first keenness of the opening 

 season, and where the trout were always 

 coming, it seemed to us but a small affair 

 to stand on a raft from rising till setting 

 sun, but I remember the happening of 

 a strange thing afterwards. One of two 

 stumbled ashore and fell : where he fell 

 there he lay. 



"Why seek your ease, friend, with 

 fish to clean and balsam to gather?" 



"Because my absurd legs refuse any 

 longer to do my bidding!" 



The science of fishing can be had 

 from books, the art is learned by the 

 catching and the losing of fish. Some 

 knowledge of the science adds immeas- 



26 



