310 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
confounded flies, whose attacks since I had ceased to be 
employed became more noticeable; in truth, if it were pos- 
sible, I doubt not that I should have liked to saddle the boy 
with his absence being the cause of my mishap. After sey- 
eral times shouting his name, he at length appeared, hat in 
hand, bare-headed, with a smile of child-like satisfaction on 
his face that, even in my irate state, I had not the heart to 
destroy. To my inquiry where he had been, with a look of 
satisfaction he informed me he had found and harried a 
nest, producing his hat full of the stolen treasures. After 
giving him a lecture on the impropriety of such a course, 
and the probabilities of his being devoured by wolves and 
bears, or even cannibals, if he left my side, I could not help 
making an inspection of what his hat contained. Truly, 
he had a hatful, for upward .of a dozen pale, cinnamon- 
blotched eggs, a trifle larger than those of the domestic 
pigeon, lay at the bottom. The nest and parent bird, from 
description, left me in no doubt that Master Jock had de- 
prived some luckless rock ptarmigan (Lagopus albus) of 
her embryo brood; and, after lecturing him on the enormi- 
ty of such a proceeding, and begging a share of the spoils, 
we started for the place of rendezvous. 
The evening after my first day’s sport was not an idle 
one, for though the body inclined to rest, full well I knew 
that on my exertions in fly-tying depended the sport of to- 
morrow. To make a good fly requires not only skill, but 
patience and knowledge, with a correct taste in the blend- 
ing of colors, a strong hand to make secure work, and the 
employment of the best materials. How frequently indif- 
ferent hooks and gut are purchased because they are a tri- 
fle cheaper! but if we could foresee the severe ordeal that 
may some day be in store for our tackle, and the splendid 
fish that may be lost through this parsimony, we should 
be better suited with half the quantity at double the cost. 
