rds boldly, and
allowed the stream to draw it straight. Then, making a violent effort,
he succeeded in causing it to descend in a series of circles close to
his feet! This, besides being unexpected, was embarrassing. Determined
to succeed, he made another cast, and caught the top branch of a small
tree, the existence of which he had forgotten. There the hooks remained
fixed.

A deep sigh broke from the excited man, as he gazed ruefully up at the
tree. Under a sudden and violent impulse, he tried to pull the tackle
forcibly away. This would not do. He tried again till the rod bent
almost double, and he was filled with amazement to find that the
casting-line, though no thicker than a thread, could stand such a pull.
Still the hooks held on. Laying down his rod, he wiped his forehead and
sighed again.

But Mr Sudberry was not a man to be easily thwarted. Recalling the
days of his boyhood, he cast off his coat and nimbly shinned up the
trunk of the tree. In a few minutes he reached the top branch and
seized it. At that moment the bough on which he stood gave way, and he
fell to the ground with a terrible crash, bringing the top branch with
him! Gathering himself up, he carefully manipulated his neck, to
ascertain whether or not it was broken. He found that it was not; but
the line was, so he sat down quietly on the bank and replaced it with a
new one.

Before Mr Sudberry left that spot on the bank beside the dark pool, he
had caught the tree four times and his hat twice, but he had caught no
trout. "They're not taking to-day, that's it," he muttered sadly to
himself; "but come, cheer up, old fellow, and try a new fly."

Thus encouraged by himself, Mr Sudberry selected a large blue fly with
a black head, red wings, and a long yellow tail. It was a gorgeous, and
he thought a tempting creature; but the trout were evidently not of the
same opinion. For several hours the unfortunate piscator flogged the
water in vain. He became very hot during this prolonged exertion,
stumbled into several holes, and wetted both legs up to the knees, had
his cap brushed off more than once by overhanging branches, and
entangled his line grievously while in the act of picking it up, bruised
his shins several times, and in short got so much knocked about,
battered, and worried, that he began to feel in a state of mental and
physical dishevelment.

Still his countenance did not betray much of his feelings. He found
fishing m