istance from
beneath a pile of charred logs and branches in the centre. Our garments
yielded to the encroachments of the rain in about the same manner. I
believe my necktie held out the longest, and carried a few dry threads
safely through. Our cunningly devised and bedecked table, which the
housekeepers had so doted on and which was ready spread for breakfast,
was washed as by the hose of a fire-engine,--only the bare poles
remained,--and the couch of springing boughs, that was to make Sleep
jealous and o'er-fond, became a bed fit only for amphibians. Still the
loosened floods came down; still the great cloud-mortars bellowed and
exploded their missiles in the treetops above us. But all nervousness
finally passed away, and we became dogged and resigned. Our minds
became water-soaked; our thoughts were heavy and bedraggled. We were
past the point of joking at one another's expense. The witticisms
failed to kindle,--indeed, failed to go, like the matches in our
pockets. About midnight the rain slackened, and by one o'clock ceased
entirely. How the rest of the night was passed beneath the dripping
trees and upon the saturated ground, I have only the dimmest
remembrance. All is watery and opaque; the fog settles down and
obscures the scene. But I suspect I tried the "wet pack" without being
a convert to hydropathy. When the morning dawned, the wives begged to
be taken home, convinced that the charms of camping-out were greatly
overrated. We, who had tasted this cup before, knew they had read at
least a part of the legend of the wary trout without knowing it.

V

SPECKLED TROUT

I

The legend of the wary trout, hinted at in the last sketch, is to be
further illustrated in this and some following chapters. We shall get
at more of the meaning of those dark water-lines, and I hope, also, not
entirely miss the significance of the gold and silver spots and the
glancing iridescent hues. The trout is dark and obscure above, but
behind this foil there are wondrous tints that reward the believing
eye. Those who seek him in his wild remote haunts are quite sure to get
the full force of the sombre and uninviting aspects,--the wet, the
cold, the toil, the broken rest, and the huge, savage, uncompromising
nature,--but the true angler sees farther than these, and is never
thwarted of his legitimate reward by them.

I have been a seeker of trout from my boyhood, and on all the
expeditions in which this fish has been the ost