234 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



brown Earn heaving from bank to 

 brae. 



So I thought, and I was not wrong. 

 Neither of us had seen any sign of a 

 salmon as we went homewards through 

 the fields. 



Next morning the scene had quite a 

 different complexion. There had been 

 frost in the night. Rime lay daintily 

 on the grass, and the river sparkled in 

 sunshine. The flood had fallen two or 

 three feet, and the water was beautifully 

 clear. Failure on such a day would be 

 inexcusable. 



1 had a rise soon after beginning. O 

 the joy of it ! So certain did it seem that 

 the fish were " on the move," I had no 

 chagrin at having struck too late. What 

 was a missed rise on the morning of a 

 day when one would have a dozen or a 

 score of rises ? I should assuredly have 

 three fish, if not four, by the time I was 

 to meet Bismarck, where a mill-stream 

 ran into the Earn fully a mile down, at 

 luncheon. My only fear was that he 



