a firm foot-hold, slipping, stumbling over some uncouth stone, slipping on 

 the moss of another, reeling and staggering, you will have a fine oppor- 

 tunity of testing the old philosophical dictum, that you can think of but one 

 thing at a time. You must think of half a dozen; of your feet, or you 

 will be sprawling in the brook; of your eyes and face, or the br^iches 

 will scratch them; of your line, or it will tangle at every step; of your 

 distant hook and dimly seen bait, or you will lose the end of all your 

 ing. At first it is a puzzling business. A little practice sets things 

 right. 



Do you see that reach of shallow water gathered to a head by a cross- 

 bar of sunken rocks? The water splits in going over upon a slab of rock 

 below, and forms an eddy to the right and one to the left. Let us tr 

 grasshopper there. Casting it in above, and guiding it by a motio*f 

 your rod, over it goes, and whirls out of the myriad bubbles into the ei 

 of the eddy, when, quick as a wink, the water breaks open, 

 a tail flashes in the air and disappears, but re-appears to th 

 instant backward motion of your hand, and the victim 

 comes skittering up the stream, whirling over and over, till 

 your hand grasps him, extricates the hook, and slips him 

 into the basket. Poor fellow ! you want to be sorry for 

 him, but every time 3'ou try you are glad instead. Stand- 

 ing still, you bait again, and try the other side of the stre 

 where the water, wiping off the bubbles from its face, 

 taking toward that deep spot under a side rock. There! 

 you've got him ! Still tempting these two shores, you take 

 five in all, and then the tribes below grow cautious. Let- 

 ting your line run before you, you wade along, holding on 

 by this branch, fumbling with your feet along the jagged 

 channel, changing hands to a bough on the left side, leaning 

 on that rock, stepping over that stranded log. Ripping a 

 generous hole in your skirt as you leave it, you come to 

 edge of the pett}^ fall. You step down, thinking only how to keep 

 your balance, and not at all of the probable depth of water, till you 

 splash and plunge down into a basin w^aist-deep. The first sens 

 tion of a man up to his vest pockets in water, is peculiarly fooli 

 and his first laugh rather faint; and he is afterward a little ash 

 of the alacrity with which' he scrambles for the bank. A 

 brings you to a sand-bank and to yourself. But while you arellin a scrape 

 at olie end of your line, a trout hns got into a worse one at the Hither. A 

 little flurried with surprise at both experiences, you come near losing him 

 in the injudicious haste with which you overhaul him. 



