IN A WELSH VALLEY 197 



notice, and he, not because he was caught, but 

 because he took at all. He was lying in less than 

 four feet of water near the bank, and I was hiding 

 behind my own rod, as a friend puts it, when I angled 

 for him. He must have seen the rod, and me, 

 clearly, and yet he took the shrimp the moment it 

 came near him. If only we had had rain, even a 

 little rain, to freshen things up, I believe some of his 

 fellows would have proved equally accommodating. 

 But we had no rain. If I live to be a very old man 

 and visit Penydwddwr twice or thrice a year, I have 

 hopes of some day getting the right conditions for 

 fishing. Then it would be something uncommonly 

 like Paradise. 



