ix FESTIVAL OF GREEN DRAKE 143 



floating morsel without undue exertion, 

 adding to his weight like some dignified 

 alderman whose active days are long past. 

 These pampered fish are not, it is true, 

 numerous, and they are, like the alderman, 

 epicurean of taste, but they cannot resist the 

 May-fly any more than the others, and I 

 calculate on a brace out of this little stream 

 before the evening. But at present we 

 should do little good by disturbing it, as the 

 fly has not begun to hatch out. 



So we will cross the meadow and get to 

 the river. From here it looks easy enough 

 to do so, but in reality the path is devious 

 and difficult to find amid the long grass. 

 These water-meadows are in truth a collec- 

 tion of little islands cut off* from each other 

 and the world by innumerable tiny streams, 

 feeders of the brook we have just left. Some 

 of them are but a foot wide, but they are all 

 at least two feet deep, and the man who, 

 eager to be at his fishing, hastens heedless 

 after his nose will get very wet. I know, 

 because I suffered the like on my first visit. 

 But there is a dry and safe path, and across 

 the more considerable drains there are little 

 bridges, and so with tortuous steps we reach 



