et. Yea, it is good to be here. Now, if that little _Waterside
Sketches_ chap was here, let me see, how would he tick it off?
Forget-me-nots--and deuced pretty they are; sedge warblers, three;
kingfishers, one; rooks melodious; picturesque cottages on the downs
nestling--they always put it that way--nestling under the beech wood;
balmy air--_'tis_ a trifle nice; cuckoo mentioning his name to all the
hills--Tennyson, I know, said so; drowsy bees and gaudy dragon
flies--yes, they are actually in the bond; and all the rest of it, here
it is. And I've chaffed my friend at the club time out of mind for his
gush, and swore by the gods that all the angler cares about is gross
weight of fish killed. Yet, somehow, I must have taken all this in
many a time, without, I suppose, knowing it. Softly now. (Casts
deftly with a short line, lightly and straightly delivered, to a corner
up-stream where the current swerves round a chestnut tree leaning into
the river. Leaps to feet with a split-cane rod arched like a bow.
Retires down stream, smiling.) No you don't! I know you. If you get
back to that first floor front of yours, I'm done. Out of your
familiar ground _you're_ done. Steady, steady! Keep your head up, and
on you come. What? More line? Well, well; one more run for the last.
Thanks; here you are. (Turns a short, thick two-pounder out of the net
into a bed of wild hyacinths in the copse.)

TERLAN (in possession of a side stream which he had won at the friendly
toss after breakfast): Fortune has smiled upon me to-day. They laugh
at my big rod, but I make it work for me. A fish has no chance with
it. I saw the Parson weeded four times yesterday with his little
ten-foot greenheart. My fish don't weed me; they can't. Ha, ha! Now
look at that trout close under the farther bank, sucking in the fat
Mayflies with a gusto worthy of an alderman. Here I am yards away in
the meadow; I am out of sight. The rod seems to know that I rely upon
it. I don't cast, so to speak; simply give the rod its head, as it
were, and there you are. (Fly alights on opposite bank, drops gently,
with upstanding wings; is seized with a flourish; trout is brought
firmly and rapidly over a bed of weeds, never permitted to twist or
turn, and attendant boy nets him out with a grin on his chubby face.)
Dip the net a little more, Tommy; you don't want to assault a fish,
only to lift him out. How many is that? Eight do you say? Then I
want