74 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



I like, and me alone. He wires the pike himself, 

 works his will upon the eels by every method 

 of barbarism known to him, and leaves the 

 trout to me. I have been watching his water 

 for weeks, and I marked down five good trout 

 therein. This evening there are three left. 

 But I am going ahead too fast. I could not 

 help it. Two beauties are lying in state on a 

 big dish in the hall, to be admired by passers-by, 

 and I cannot resist sitting down to share the 

 joy of their capture with my brethren of the 

 dry-fly who are pining in cities and longing to 

 be where every sensible man should be when 

 the thorn-trees are white with blossom by 

 the banks of a river. 



To-day's captures are small-headed, deep in 

 girth, and still keeping the golden and silver 

 shimmer on their sides that they had when first 

 out of the water, kicking in the fresh meadow 

 grass. The reason of their beauty enduring so 

 long is a special secret, not known to all trout- 

 fishers the secret of wrapping them up in 

 newspaper directly after they are caught. Those 

 who do not know of this, I recommend to try 

 the experiment. But I have got too far ahead 

 again with my story. The first trout of the 

 season was the smaller of the two. He was 

 rising confidently near my bank as I walked 



