e branches
over his head. His first impression was that he might as well attempt to
throw a fly to the moon, but presently things began to look more
hopeful, and he found at length that, when the fly did get just beyond
the downward rush of the fall, it was swept by the current into certain
glassy deeps, where he could work it pretty well. Hard as he labored,
however, that jerking little gray shrimp (for that was what the fly
looked like in the water) could not stir anything. He worked away until
even the indefatigable Robert said he had done enough; then he reeled
up; and perhaps he was not sorry to regain the top of this sheer
precipice, where there was but that single fir-stump and a few loose
branches of birch between him and the seething and surging whirlpool
below.

He was more fortunate in the Geinig Pool, which Miss Cunyngham also
compelled him to take, good-naturedly remarking that she had her fish
already, and that he must have its fellow to carry home in the evening.
There were some welcome clouds about now, and the rock from which he had
to cast over the Geinig Pool afforded him a much better foothold than
the fir-roots. At first things did not seem favorable, for he went over
all the deep, smooth water without moving a fin; in fact, he had fished
almost right to the end of the pool, when, in the very act of recovering
his line, he got hold of something. And very soon he found that he had
got hold of a very lively something; for the cantrips which this small
salmon played were most extraordinary. For a second or two he seemed
inclined to go right down the stony channel (which would have instantly
settled the matter, as there was no possible means of following him),
but the next moment he had dashed right up through the middle of the
pool, tearing the water as he went, and frightening the luckless
fisherman half out of his wits with this dangerously slackening line.
That, however, was soon righted; and now the salmon lay in an eddy just
below the fall. Would he attempt to breast that bulk of water in a mad
effort to be free of this hateful thing that had got hold of him?--then
good-bye to him forever! But no--that was not his fancy; he suddenly
sprang into the air--and again sprang--and then savagely beat the
surface with body and tail; after which fearsome performance he swerved
round and came right in under the rock on which Lionel was standing,
where they could see him lying perfectly still in the deep, cl