Immense Fish, if I put a young grayling down so much the better. My fly fell about ten yards west of the spot at which I had aimed.
Immediately I was playing something of quite respectable strength. It jagged downwards, and I said to my heart, "A grayling of dimensions!" It proceeded down stream, jagging always, and I never saw it until I had followed it fifty yards. Then it showed—yellow. I thought, "The gut is frayed," and stepped up to my middle in water disguised as mud. Subsequently I found myself still connected with the fish. Ten hours (was it?) later I performed a sort of tilting at the ring with trout and landing net (my miserable little landing net) and grassed him. Then (after butchery), while my spring balance, groaning, sank to three, my soul rose towards the zenith. I had topped three pounds. The years fell away from my shoulders.
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Thus the great prize came to me, through no special skill or care or pertinacity of mine. It is impossible to draw any moral from the incident which is not quite immoral. I cannot say, "Behold what comes of sticking to it," or "Thus, young man, by perfecting oneself in the use of one's weapons, when the opportunity arises one is found ready to seize it," because I threw without any
