THE BLOODY DOCTOR loi 



deceive the trout by the primitive dodge of tying 

 a red thread round the shank of a dairk fly. So I 

 waded out, and fell to munching a frugal sandwich 

 and watching Nature, not without a cigarette. 



Now Nature is all very well. I have nothing 

 to say against her of a Sunday, or when trout are 

 not rising. But she was no comfort to me now. 

 Smiling she gazed on my discomfiture. The 

 lovely lines of the hills^ curving about the loch, 

 and with their deepest dip just opposite where 1 

 sat, were all of a golden autumn brown, except in 

 the violet distance. The grass of Parnassus grew 

 thick and white around me, with its moonlight tint 

 of green in the veins. On a hillside by a brook 

 the countryfolk were winning their hay, and their 

 voices reached me softly from far off. On the 

 loch the marsh-fowl flashed and dipped, the wild 

 ducks played and dived and rose ; first circling 

 high and higher, then, marshalled in the shape of 

 a V, they made for Alemoor. A solitary heron 

 came quite near me, and tried his chance with the 

 fish, but I think he ,had no luck. All this is 

 pleasant to remember, and I made rude sketches 



