154 Recreations of a Sportsman 



he replied, " and it never occurred to me but 

 that you would have a saw." 



" No," said the other, " I never have found 

 any use for a saw when trout fishing; that is, 

 here," he added. " I have seen the time on the 

 Sequel, and on the Carmel, when a saw would 

 have come in handy to get back flies." 



So the two men picked up their creels, and 

 good sized ones they were, swung them over their 

 shoulders and walked up-stream. For long dis- 

 tances there w r as not a tree nor shrub near the 

 bank, only the splendid spruce and pine forest 

 yards away, and as the river bank was only 

 three feet high one could stand on it, or ten 

 feet back and send his fly within a foot of the 

 shade of the willows on the opposite side, sixty 

 or seventy feet distant; and in many times out 

 of ten one would have a strike. Then would 

 come a clump of wallows drooping over the water 

 around which the anglers were obliged to walk; 

 then a long stretch of clear bank again, all the 

 time turning and twisting, as became a moder- 

 ately swift little stream. 



Meanwhile, the anglers were watching the 

 water, which here and there was covered with 

 grass in patches, lines, ropes, and bunches the 

 distraction of the fisherman. 



" There must have been an earthquake to turn 

 up so much grass," said the latter. And the 

 higher they w r ent the worse it got. 



