COURAGE 103 



OF COURAGE AND THE JEOPARDIZING OF 

 TUPPENCE ha'penny. 



That, my friends, is almost the extreme price of 

 a trout-fly. Some are less. Yet how often shall 

 you see an angler whose equipment for the taking 

 of trout has run into pounds, and whose railway 

 fare and reckoning at his inn are substantial 

 items of expenditure upon the same object, throw 

 away most sporting occasions for the attainment 

 of his end because, forsooth, he is sure to be hung 

 up or weeded or smashed or something equally 

 delightful — and bang would go tuppence ha'penny ! 

 I have no patience with this sort of thing. The 

 more hopeless the prospect of getting out a trout 

 from an impossible place, the more determined 

 I am to try for him, De Vaudace, encore de I'audace 

 — toujours de Vaudace! In May, 1909, just before 

 the May-fly began, I was by the river-side, when I 

 heard a loud smacking sound, and, peering through 

 a willow -bush, I saw a fine trout cruising on an 

 eddy and sucking down flies with hearty enjoyment. 

 If I cast over him from behind the bush, I should 

 have to play him on a six-ounce rod with xxx 

 gut between a thorn-bush which I could touch with 

 my right hand and a willow I could touch with 

 my left. There were snags above and snags 

 below. Did I hesitate ? Only long enough to 

 tie on a new Crosbie Alder, then long enough for 

 him to reach the top of his beat, and then I 



