302 AN ANGLER AT LARGE 



formerly always a tidy trout. And in under the 

 alder bush below there may be anything up to 

 five pounds. But there won't be. 



Oh ! the Mill pool used to be a great institu- 

 tion. 



It is a great institution. For I will lash my 

 poor old Hope yet again into activity. To-morrow 

 I shall have no further use for her. For to-morrow 

 we go away. 



The Mill pool is a great institution. I declare 

 it. I profess it. It is placed on the top of the 

 water, which is the right situation for a Mill pool. 

 It never fails. I say it never fails. It will not 

 fail me to-night. It is inconceivable that the 

 Mill pool should ever fail. 



What though the Lower End lie dead and dull 

 at ten o'clock ? What though at midday the long 

 withy-bed yield nothing but broken gut and filled 

 waders? What though, by two, the Island has 

 beaten a man, and the backwater above it by four, 

 and the Slow Water by five, and the Bridge Reach 

 by six, and Crab Hatch by seven, and the Crab back- 

 water by eight, and the Two Meadows by nine. 

 Hurry on to the Mill. A red sedge will do the 

 trick yet. There is half an hour more of light, 

 and the pool is in the very eye of the afterglow. 



