EARLY TROUT FISHING. 277 



much more noisy and obstreperous than it 

 really is. Where an opening occurs you may 

 not improbably light on the first pale "un- 

 married " primrose you have met for the year, 

 and on the lurking secretive violets. They 

 make a sweet couch for a dead trout to lie 

 upon ; and if you have a strong imagination 

 perhaps you will find they give your fish a 

 flavour. The wood is a still spot in the 

 March afternoon. Pigeons clutter overhead, 

 but have not generally begun to make love to 

 each other, cooing like muffled French horns 

 in an orchestra. A thrush or a blackbird pipes 

 an occasional stave, and then ceases. The 

 rivulet alone breaks the silence, while now and 

 again you catch the regular beat of a mill- 

 wheel ever so far off, but only when the brook 

 has allowed its voice to droop to a sort of con 

 fidential whisper as it glides quietly and darkly 

 into a sort of tunnel composed of interlaced 

 leafless tree branches. 



There is no rule of trout angling that may 

 not be occasionally broken with advantages 

 Even that law so emphatically laid down in 

 this slight sketch touching the futility of at- 



