FEBRUARY FILL-DYKE 41 



if there can be nothing alive behind it. Then 

 a convenient rail to sit upon is suggestive of 

 a rest and luncheon. One weak spot of water- 

 meadows for the fisherman in need of rest is 

 that you cannot sit down in them, and it is 

 no use carrying a shooting-stick or camp- 

 stool, because it sinks in the mud if you try 

 to use it. Hot soup from a thermos is good. 

 So is the mutton-pie, still warm ; but before 

 it is finished a subtle change seems to come 

 in the air, or the light quite indescribable ; 

 but the effect is that instead of the river looking 

 as if it contained nothing alive, it looks as if 

 its slightly coloured waters concealed many 

 great fishes. Such times are not to be spent 

 in feeding ; the mutton-pie, with a bite out 

 of it like the one in the Mad Hatter's slice of 

 bread and butter, goes into the napkin again, 

 and into the pocket, and I resume fishing, 

 full of hope and too keen to wait even to fill 

 a pipe. 



I wonder whether there really was a change 

 in the air or light, or whether the hot soup 

 refreshed a tired brain and muscles and made 

 me fish more carefully and better. The line 

 goes out much better now, and drops each time 

 a few inches short of a long reed-bed on the 

 other side, about a couple of yards further 



