OCTOBER 247 



weather was obtrusive. As often happens 

 early in autumn, the frost of the morning 

 had " come back," and the heavens were 

 veiled in cloud. If only we had been 

 having a fish now and then, or even a run, 

 the weather would have seemed all right ; 

 as things were, it was dismal. Salmon 

 here and there were leaping; but not 

 one of them would look at a fly. Besides, 

 I had an exceptional cause of being out- 

 of- sorts. Residing in the wilds, I have an 

 instinctive conscience as regards north, 

 south, east, and west. On the drive from 

 the railway station to the house, over a 

 road which had many turns, I must, for 

 a moment, have lost the sense of directions, 

 which I had not recovered ; at any rate, 

 ever since I had set foot on its bank this 

 river Earn, which I knew to flow from 

 west to east, had seemed to be flowing 

 from east to west. Readers native to 

 the land south of the Border, who never 

 know where they are in relation to the 

 points of the compass, and laugh at any 

 one who raises the question, will perhaps 



