line drawn at right angles to the course of the stream from the point of the fence to the opposite bank would have passed through that trout, just behind the gills. So my mind is quite easy. His head was in my water. Let the other fellow have his tail. Having put this trout down, I passed on; and so much for our preliminary skirmish.
I thought no more about him till the next day when, approaching the place, I remembered the rise of the day before and came warily to the bank. A short description of the theatre of war may not be superfluous.
I was confined here to one side of the river, which at this point is about twenty yards broad. No one can wade in the Slow Water and live. The bank is three feet high. A line of tall willows fringes it thickly. One of them is missing, the one next the fence. This alone makes it possible to cast across the stream. Crouching close to the fence and working the point perpendicularly, it can be done, for I learned to do it. On one's immediate right the entanglements of Sir Bran menace rod and tackle. On one's immediate left is a spreading willow. Oh, it was a happy little corner for a bungling fool to fish away in it some of the best hours of his life.
The position, then, demands a perfectly straight
