A DAY ON THE ITCHEN 89 



to those governing the play of rod and line in 

 throwing a small fly into the teeth of a down- 

 stream wind. The rod will do that for him, 

 when once he gets the trick of not interfering 

 too much with its activities, and so exhaust- 

 ing himself to no purpose. Skill in casting 

 accurately and without fatigue is a great asset 

 to the dry-fly man. Like most things worth 

 having, it can only be acquired by hard work 

 and constant practice. To some folk it comes 

 more easily than to others, but when it does 

 come it brings with it a feeling of admiration for 

 the qualities of a good rod that can work such 

 wonders with so little human help. Every foot 

 of a cast, line and rod, from fly to wrist, then 

 seems to be alive, and at the same time under 

 perfect control. Shall we imagine that we have 

 it, before we begin our day ? " Let's pretend " 

 is a lovely game, both for young and old. 



And now our dry-fly day is dawning. The 

 river is quite close. We shall arrive at it fresh, 

 without having drawn upon our reserve of 

 energy by a long and tiring walk. We shall 

 get plenty of exercise before sunset. Late as 

 it was, we could not keep away from the water 

 last night ; we smoked the last pipe leaning 

 over the low parapet of the old stone bridge 

 near by, looking down into the glassy water at 



