IN A WELSH VALLEY 185 



not only gravel bed, but also March browns and the 

 spinners thereof, besides smaller kinds. And it was 

 new also to have warm weather. If only there had 

 been a decent quantity of water ! But the water 

 came as our time was practically up. 'Tis ever thus. 

 I have said that there were no genuine half- 

 pounders. Nor were there, but one evening we 

 were all staggered to behold a trout of some fourteen 

 inches' length which weighed within a trifle of a 

 whole pound. It was a portent, and we stood in a 

 dumb row before it, wondering how such a thing 

 might be. It had been hooked in a fin, moreover, 

 and had kept its captor in play for some ten minutes. 

 You might go to Penydwddwr many times without 

 seeing such another. But you might see my three- 

 and-a-half -pounder in the big flat if you looked 

 close. I saw him one evening and came home and 

 talked about him at length, not unmindful of the 

 proverb about " having lived near the rose." On 

 the whole, I did well out of the incident. It was 

 unlucky that I should see him again a day or so 

 after. I found that while men slept he had turned 

 into a chub. People laugh easily at Penydwddwr. 

 I had made similar little mistakes there before. I 

 question whether honesty is invariably the best 

 policy. But, on the other hand, had some one else 

 discovered the truth they would have laughed 

 more. Perhaps honesty stands where it did. 



