20 In Pursuit of the Trout 



be left for seed and harvest decorations. 

 Flowers, too, there were along the prim 

 box hedges; phloxes here again ; wallflowers, 

 lavender, great white lilies with yellow- 

 dusted petals, lilies of the valley, fair to 

 youth and pale to passion ; larkspur ; immense 

 sunflowers. The girls would stop now and 

 then, and pluck a bloom of becoming colour ; 

 one of them, who, like Maud in her splendour, 

 might be called the fairest flower of all, 

 has now, alas, no further need of earthly 

 gardens. 



No doubt the garden after all these years 

 is in the flower time still bright with its 

 blossoms, and under the great plane-tree 

 where the stream flows deep and mysterious 

 the trout will still be on the look-out for 

 insect food, perhaps as little harassed as in 

 old days. But were I to return thither, rod 

 in hand, there would certainly be a great 

 something lacking ; the garden would be 

 changed, as, perhaps, was that in which grew 

 the sensitive plant, and the stream bound 

 to disappoint, even if the trout rose freely. 



