HVILESTED. THE UPPER WATER 153 



gut parted about a foot above the fly, and the spent 

 giant after lying still for a moment rolled slowly back 

 into the depths. The frayed edges of the gut showed 

 that it had been rubbed against a submerged rock, 

 and the cast would not bear the strain of the dead 

 pull. I was beaten ! but I think I enjoyed that un- 

 successful fight more than many victories. 



" Does it never rain in Norway, Ole ? " I asked 

 that evening as I got into the cart at Fladvad farm. 

 I think there was just the suspicion of a smile on 

 his wrinkled face as he answered " Sometimes." 

 There came a day in the year of which I am writing 

 when I was to learn what could happen when 

 the floodgates of heaven were opened. On the 

 previous afternoon I had been fishing the long 

 pool at Fladvad full of hope, as I knew that it 

 was full of sea-trout, and it looked in splendid order. 

 I had learnt by experience that it was about the 

 best trout water in the whole of the Sundal. Deep 

 under the south bank on the road side, and sloping 

 gradually from a shingle bank opposite, it had only 

 two faults. The first was that it was somewhat 

 monotonous, as it took quite an hour and a half to 

 fish over, and looked very much the same all the 

 way, although experience proved that fish had their 

 favourite spots. The second drawback was that 

 although it was easy wading and the bottom fairly 

 smooth with a gradual slope, the fisherman got so far 

 out into the stream that it was fatiguing as well as 

 a waste of time to have to wade out and deposit one's 

 fish on the bank every time one was caught, which 

 was often every few minutes. For this reason I 

 invented and adopted what my sons christened my 



