184. THE TROUT ARE RISING 
despondency. I was all alertness and keenly alive to the 
necessity of calm behaviour and cool action. Oh! the excite- 
ment of such amoment! The fears, the hopes, the thousand 
tremors that make each moment appear an age! Would my 
slender rod bear the strain? Would the fish reach the rapids 
beyond, or perhaps dive under the bridge and break my line? 
What if, after all, I should lose it! It is so difficult in such 
cases to convince your absent friends of the great size of the 
lost fish. Oh! joy! The trout at last shows signs of 
exhaustion. Nowis the time to be cautious. At last I could 
sing victory! For the glorious creature was lying on the grass 
at my feet, while I stood gazing with rapture on the very best 
fish ever taken from the Stour with a fly. I make this state- 
ment in the full assurance that there is not a single member of 
the association who will venture to contradict me.” 
