78 WHAT I HAVE SEEN WHILE FISHING 



cover mid-stream boulders, and the prostrate grass 

 and sedges on the banks tell that during the night 

 it has been an angry torrent that the fish had to 

 wait an abatement of before commencing their 

 inland journey. 



The surfaces of the eddies are still a swirling 

 mass of dtbris, with here and there at their tails 

 mats of rolled-up clotted froth, that spin round and 

 round until fairly caught by the stream, when they 

 speed off, to be driven against the rock at the next 

 sharp bend, there to be unrolled and lost. 



The ditches, too, had overflowed their limits 

 and laid the crops, and were now so full that I 

 had often to retrace my steps to the road, which 

 runs conveniently near for many miles. 



The sun at last struggled through the flying 

 clouds, and soon shone with such assurance as left 

 no room for fear of further rain. The birds were 

 almost instantaneous in their responses to the 

 brightened sky and their warblings were every- 

 where. 



The sorrel-tinted grasses in the meadows, heavy 

 with rain, were at first slow and patchy in respond- 

 ing to the wind's invitation to be gay, but the 

 patches grew in size and number until the whole 

 field, freed from its wet encumbrances, joined in 

 the fun ; and then the waves of grass played leap- 

 frog while the stiff docks nodded approval. 



The cowslips, with their graceful bendings and 

 swayings, and the curtseying daisies seemed dancing 



