32 AN ANGLER AT LARGE 



life, and as I took the high road through the 

 valley I kicked up the dust in clouds for sheer 

 high spirits. This was to be a day of days. And 

 so I came to the cottage of William Pound. 



I was naturally anxious to reach the water at 

 the earliest possible moment, but Courtesy required 

 me to report myself to William, and Nature de- 

 manded a breakfast at the Inn. Afterwards I 

 desired to go away by myself and fish. But 

 when I had found William, and had satisfied him 

 of my right to take the lives of his employer's 

 trout (if I could), and had mentioned that I would 

 go and get some food, and that I supposed I 

 should see him later on which means, in plain 

 English, that I would be happy to compensate 

 him for the loss of my society during the day by 

 a suitable gift at the end of it when, I say, I had 

 done all this, and made as if to leave him, he 

 asserted that there was no use in fishing before 

 10.30, and invited me to visit his crops of vege- 

 tables. Now 1 had deprived myself so far of a 

 hot breakfast and of several hours' sleep in order 

 to gain the riverside by 9.30, and I had no wish 

 to contemplate William's orderly rows of beet- 

 roots, lettuces, and cabbages, or even potatoes. 

 My soul was attuned to less earthly things. I 

 felt, however, that a refusal must be churlish, and 

 I consented. Here I made a vital mistake, 



