ALONG A TROUT-STREAM 



smile of dying sunlight; even more real and divine in 

 ghostly semi-darkness at night ! Opaline lights play 

 through still lagoons in deep glades where the twin 

 sisters of Silence and Twilight keep noonday watch, 

 and "all the cheated hours sing vespers." Foliage 

 melting away in distance to mystery of banks and 

 masses, softest shadows deepening into black gloom, 

 lonely stretches of the stream covered with Nature- 

 Glory in their remote windings ! Yet over each small 

 section of such a scene is the mystery of color, form, 

 interlaced shade. Here is what a man of sharpest 

 sight has said of it : 



" 'fhe stones and gravel of the banks catch green reflec- 

 tions from the boughs above, '^he bushes receive grays and 

 yellows from the ground. Every hair-breadth of polished 

 surface gives back a little bit of blue of the sky or gold of 

 sun. 'this local color is again disguised and modified by 

 the hue of the light, or quenched in the gray of the shadows." 



But over and in all reigns the deeper Mystery of 

 Life. Visible forms and their beauty are not the 

 strongest attractions of the trout-stream. Grant that 

 mystery of soft depth of gloom, grace of motion in 

 water, and of greatest delicacy of color are before the 

 angler. What enchantment is there in even all this 

 lovely environment to create such fierce longing for it, 

 such content when possessed ? Blue sky-fire may burn 

 like a steadfast sapphire through emerald foliage ; the 



iSi 



