30 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



Thus, then, live I, 

 Till, 'raid all the gloom, 

 By heaven ! the bold sun 

 Is with me in the room, 



Shining, shining ! 



Then the clouds part, 



Swallows soaring between ; 

 The spring is alive, 



And the meadows are green ! 

 I jump up like mad, 



Break the old pipe in twain, 

 And away to the meadows, 



The meadows again ! 



That man must have been older than I am. 

 Or perhaps there was no one to stir him out 

 of his study and to tell him sooner of the turn 

 of the year and the sunshine without. 



The turn of the year comes long before the 

 swallow. Some say that it comes on that 

 dreary day in December when you know that 

 the days really do begin to lengthen, although 

 you shave (if you do shave) by candlelight, 

 and even Christmas is not quite yet. No ; 

 the turn of the year is some time after 

 Christmas. When is it ? At New Year ? 

 Not quite ; but in these parts, if the weather 

 is mild, there is an indication some time in 

 January that the turn is coming. Little crim- 

 son stars show on the hazel-nut buds, waiting 



