the stream up to his knees in water (where I could not follow him) over three good trout which he said he could see. Every now and then he would answer me when I spoke, and sometimes when I coughed he would tell me how he was getting on. But most of the time he was quite unconscious of my presence on the bank, and I am sure that he was very happy. I was wet and cold and hungry by this time, and I left him (he hardly turned his head) and went away to the Inn for tea. On my return he was still at the same place. The food must have given me heart, for I found myself able to claim the rod, and in a very short time William had discovered a trout and I had caught it. The custom was now thoroughly established, that after I had grassed a fish William was to have the rod, and I followed him up the stream till 6.30, when he took me to a stretch of water which we had not yet visited. Here there was no fly, so from that time I had the rod to myself until it was too dark for me to see, when William resumed it, and finished the day with an exhibition of long casting under the far bank, in the course of which the spear of the butt fell into the long grass and was lost to me for ever.
Joe would have been far too busy mowing to treat me in such a way. Besides, morally and practically he is incapable of it.
