220 CAMP FIRE REMINISCENCES 
my attention—it swooped down close to me a dozen 
times, and did everything possible to convince me 
that its nest was near. Knowing that this species 
nested on the ground, and that it was probably on 
the cool, grassy place and not on the burning 
prairie, I put my rod down and devoted myself to 
finding it. My perseverance was rewarded, for — 
very soon I saw it on a tuft of grass, and contain-- 
ing five pale blue eggs. As I had never before 
found one of these nests, this added greatly to my 
pleasure. 
Turning a bend in the river, a short distance 
below I came upon a Japanese section man—he was 
fishing with the fly and his rod was a long bamboo, 
while a string of splendid fish hanging from a rope 
around his shoulder, told the story of hisluck. We 
represented different civilisations, but both belong- 
ing to the ancient order of Nimrod we understood 
each other perfectly, and met on the level. We 
each nodded, and smiled, each said something in- 
comprehensible to the other, and passing on we con- 
tinued our occupations. 
A man frequently exercises a good deal of care 
in keeping his waders dry inside when beginning 
a day’s fishing, but he gets bravely over this in a 
short time, and is only prevented from discarding 
them altogether by the fact that he has nothing 
else with him. When late in the afternoon I gave 
up, and returned to where my trout were cached, 
I certainly had not on a dry stitch, but the hot sun 
prevented my feeling any inconvenience from this. 
My total count was thirty-four, and for half an 
