72 FISHING IN EDEN 



he never took off a ragged-looking fly that had been 

 accounting for fish, unless the tying was coming 

 undone. He would also tell me stories at these 

 times, and I remember he was very much amused 

 by a gentleman from London who, he said, once 

 went out fishing with him. 



" As scan as they were takken, and he gat yan, 

 he was oot t' watter and fetlen up on t' bank wi' a 

 fresh flee er summat, and by t' time he was back 

 again they'd hed their dinners and didn't want any 

 mair o' his fancy flees." 



My pursuit of the trout during the whole of that 

 season was constant, and, in consequence, I began 

 to know the best places; so much so that I was, 

 perhaps, as is natural with youth, paying a too 

 undivided attention to them. 



One day " Bob " said in his quiet, smiling way, 

 " Ah see yer beginnen to ken t' smittal (infectious) 

 plaices, but doan't git it into yer heed that t' fish 

 nobbet stick to them. Ye maun git to know where 

 they feed ' sometimes ' as well as generally." 



The lesson he wanted to teach was, of course, the 

 old one, that in sport, as in other affairs of life, the 

 unexpected and irregular often happens, and the 

 man who can find means to meet them is the man 

 who can usually counter most of the chances of the 

 game. 



