NATURE NEAR LONDON 



After a while I noticed another circumstance ; 

 nobody ever even looked into the stream or under 

 the arches of the bridge. No one spared a moment 

 from his float amid the scum of the pond, just to 

 stroll twenty paces and glance at the swift current. 

 It appeared from this that the pond had a reputa- 

 tion for fish, and the brook had not. Everybody 

 who had angled in the pond recommended his 

 friends to go and do likewise. There were fish in 

 the pond. 



So every fresh comer went and angled there, and 

 accepted the fact that there were fish. Thus the 

 pond obtained a traditionary reputation, which cir- 

 culated from lip to lip round about. I need not 

 enlarge on the analogy that exists in this respect 

 between the pond and various other things. 



By implication it was evidently as much under- 

 stood and accepted on the other hand that there 

 was nothing in the stream. Thus I reasoned it 

 out, sitting under the aspen, and yet somehow the 

 general opinion did not satisfy me. There must 

 be something in so sweet a stream. The sedges 

 by the shore, the flags in the shallow, slowly sway- 

 ing from side to side with the current, the sedge- 

 reedlings calling, the moorhens and water-rats, all 

 gave an air of habitation. 



One morning, looking very gently over the para- 

 pet of the bridge (down stream) into the shadowy 

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