sh
to wag a fin there, and from strict monopoly had grown so fat, kept
his victualing yard--if so low an expression can be used concerning
him--within about a square yard of this spot. He had a sweet hover, both
for rest and recreation, under the bank, in a placid antre, where
the water made no noise, but tickled his belly in digestive ease. The
loftier the character is of any being, the slower and more dignified his
movements are. No true psychologist could have believed--as Sweet-land
the blacksmith did, and Mr. Pook the tinman--that this trout could
ever be the embodiment of Crocker. For this was the last trout in the
universal world to drown himself for love; if truly any trout has done
so.

"You may come now, and try to look along my back," John Pike, with a
reverential whisper, said to me. "Now don't be in a hurry, young stupid;
kneel down. He is not to be disturbed at his dinner, mind. You keep
behind me, and look along my back; I never clapped eyes on such a
whopper."

I had to kneel down in a tender reminiscence of pasture land, and gaze
carefully; and not having eyes like those of our Zebedee (who offered
his spine for a camera, as he crawled on all fours in front of me), it
took me a long time to descry an object most distinct to all who have
that special gift of piercing with their eyes the water. See what is
said upon this subject in that delicious book, "The Gamekeeper at Home."

"You are no better than a muff," said Pike, and it was not in my power
to deny it.

"If the sun would only leave off," I said. But the sun, who was having a
very pleasant play with the sparkle of the water and the twinkle of
the leaves, had no inclination to leave off yet, but kept the rippling
crystal in a dance of flashing facets, and the quivering verdure in a
steady flush of gold.

But suddenly a May-fly, a luscious gray-drake, richer and more delicate
than canvas-back or woodcock, with a dart and a leap and a merry zigzag,
began to enjoy a little game above the stream. Rising and falling like
a gnat, thrilling her gauzy wings, and arching her elegant pellucid
frame, every now and then she almost dipped her three long tapering
whisks into the dimples of the water.

"He sees her! He'll have her as sure as a gun!" cried Pike, with a gulp,
as if he himself were "rising." "Now, can you see him, stupid?"

"Crikey, crokums!" I exclaimed, with classic elegance; "I have seen that
long thing for five minutes; but I took it for