A Cup in the Hills 



for the fact that not a trout nibbled our bait 

 until broad nine o'clock in the forenoon. 



Now be it understood that trout fishing 

 in a pond is by no means the same thing 

 as trout fishing in running water. A trout 

 conforms to his surroundings in many re- 

 spects coloring, for instance, and motion. 

 In dark colored water a trout is dark 

 skinned. In clear water he is paler, more 

 golden in hue. In quick water a trout is 

 quick of movement, impulsive, darting. In 

 continuously still water he grows sluggish, 

 leisurely, deliberative. Whereas a brook 

 trout in his native element is the quickest 

 of all fish to seize a bait, if he is going to 

 bite at all, in still water he becomes the most 

 tardy and conservative of the finny tribe. 

 My host told me that he had sometimes sat 

 from five o'clock in the morning until five 

 o'clock in the evening in his boat on the 

 pond, and then got his first bite, after which 

 he landed eight big trout in succession. So 

 the reader will see that for a test of the 

 fisherman's proverbial patience nothing 

 quite equals pond fishing for brook trout. 



We waited, as I said, until nine o'clock 

 for our first bite ; and then the boy, the mas- 



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