BROWN WATERS 



note in its gamut. Before the run could 

 be checked he was in the grip of the 

 rapid with the reel nearly bare, and 

 tackle was tried to the uttermost to hold 

 him, and work him into easier water. 

 When a little line had been won back he 

 leaped clear, made another dash down 

 river, and all was to be done again. No 

 trout of his weight within an ounce or 

 two of five pounds ever made a freer, 

 bolder fight. This fish and seven others 

 were only part of the recompense 

 awarded to chuckle-headed persistency, 

 for the spot remains worthy of a visit at 

 a certain stage of the water, and no other 

 I have seen gives so fit a setting to the 

 capture of a trout. Here it was, in a 

 later year, that one larger by a quarter 

 of a pound, and as full of activity and 

 resource, died most gallantly after tak- 

 ing his full twenty minutes by the 

 watch. . . . On many a summer day 

 the river will run as then, flawed by the 

 wind, carrying in its bosom reflections 



41 



