XIII 

 THE MIDLAND BROOK 



ONE knows quite well what a brook is, but 

 I am rather puzzled as to how to define it. 

 In scientific language, I suppose, it would 

 be classed as a feeder or a tributary, but 

 neither of these definitions can be regarded 

 as satisfactory ; the first is too utilitarian, and 

 the second is too suggestive of Caesar and 

 other forms of exact knowledge. Nor do 

 we find it more happily placed in the 

 popular idiom. A brook is not a river, 

 nor is it a ditch ; the one name is inexact, 



the other insulting. A brook is , but 



I am still puzzled, and must go to the task 

 more subtly. When you find a stream that 

 is neither so great but that a reasonably active 

 man encumbered with rod, landing-net, and 

 creel can without rashness attempt to jump 

 across it at least three times in every mile, 



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