166 In Pursuit of the Trout 



but commonly remarked that he had found 

 no trout rising at the fly. If his critic and 

 opponent, Pot-hunter, had a basketful, he 

 would contrive to let the company know 

 that they were not killed in the orthodox 

 scientific style. Once he and Stripling were 

 left alone at the angling inn at the end of 

 the summer holidays, and, as may be imagined, 

 the latter got many lectures on 'the real thing,' 

 and how it should be achieved. Stripling 

 knew nothing about fly-fishing, but was eager 

 to learn, and was so greatly interested when 

 the purist told him how to sit still and watch 

 for rising trout, if necessary by the hour, that 

 he resolved to thoroughly master the mysteries 

 of the art. Accordingly, one soft September 

 evening he crouched down in the tall and 

 thick river herbage close to a spot famed for 

 heavy trout, content, if need be, to wait and 

 to watch for a couple of hours or so. The 

 following is what, after a while, he saw, 

 open-mouthed : the purist cautiously making 

 his way to the river-side through a bed of 

 osiers, all eyes and ears, as though apparently 



