i8o WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



back not far from the tail. Before the cold meat was fairly 

 removed from the napkin the float went off like an arrow, 

 and this proved a keynote to which a rattling tune was 

 played for the rest of the day. 



Not only was the afternoon's sport good, but the sur- 

 roundings were themselves most delightful. The keeper 

 was out with his dogs and punt seeking wild ducks, and as 

 the birds took a good deal of shooting, and the fowler did not 

 stop until he had four brace, besides a couple of coots, 

 there was plenty to look at between the disappearances of 

 the great crimson float. Another source of observation 

 was the effect of the frost upon the trees. 



"It shook the sere leaves from the wood 

 As if a storm passed by." 



The wind was a mere breath, and that at fitful intervals, 

 but whenever the breath came, like a passing sigh, the 

 rustling of the leaves which had been stricken by the frost, 

 and the tremor and haste of their flight to the ground, were 

 most curious to behold. In the morning the bit of lawn 

 between the keeper's house and the landing steps was bare : 

 in the evening it was ankle deep in the dark-brown dead 

 leaves shed by the horse-chestnut trees. Of my "take" I 

 will only say that a new rush basket had to be purchased to 

 convey it to town, and that some unknown friend thought it 

 worth a paragraph in the columns of a certain sporting 

 journal. During the day, at another end of tlie lake, a 

 party of merry gentlemen had been laughing and shouting 

 and singing, so much so that it never occurred to me that 

 they could be prospering much with their rods. They had 

 scarcely moved from one spot, but they came in at dusk 

 with seventy pounds of fish between them. 



