18 In Pursuit of the Trout 



geranium, verbena, calceolaria — brown and 

 yellow speckled — sweet mignonette, and 

 phloxes of a hundred hues — all in 'sweet 

 disorder.' As for the walls of the manor- 

 house, they were covered with creepers having 

 gnarled stems like the greater branches of an 

 aged oak. Somewhere on the walls was a sun- 

 dial, half hidden be sure in due season by the 

 purple passion-flowers. It is hard after these 

 years to locate it exactly, but it was there, 

 and the shadows crept regretfully over it. 



The stream broke into music as it entered 

 this garden, and low and sweetly among the 

 thousand, thousand blooms sang its ever- 

 lasting lullaby song. Where a great plane- 

 tree swept the water with its lowest and 

 heaviest bough, one looked with confidence 

 in the summer evening for a few good rising 

 trout. There was a deep hole under the 

 roots of this tree, and out of this the fish 

 would come when all was quiet — trout are 

 great believers in quietude — and roam about 

 under the branches, picking up a good meal 

 of insects which fell out of the thick foliage 



