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Catching the Speckled Trout

(371) large gaudy peacock-fly alighted on the of the desperate struggle that should folwheeling eddies, at the tail of a long low, before the monster should lie pantarrowy shoot, as gently as if it had settled ing and exhausted on the yellow sand or from too long a flight. Delicately, deftly, moist greensward. stone. it was made to dance and skim the clear, "Away, with the rush of an eagle brown surface until it had crossed the through the air, he is gone like an arrow pool and neared the hither bank; then down the rapids; how the reel rings, and again, agreeable to the pliant wrist, it the line whistles from the swift-working arose on glittering wing, circled half wheel; he is too swift, too headstrong to round the angler's head, and was sent be checked as yet; tenfold the strength fifteen yards along, straight as a wild bee's of that slender tackle might not control flight, into a little mimic whirlpool- him in his first fiery rush. scarcely larger than the hat of the skilful "But Jasper, although young in years fisherman-which spun round and round was old in the art, and skilful as the just to leeward of a gray ledge of lime- craftiest of the gentle craftsmen. He gives him the butt of his rod steadily, "Scarce had it reached its mark before trying the strength of his tackle with a the water broke all around it, and the gay delicate, gentle finger, giving him line at deceit vanished; the heavy swirl of the every rush, yet firmly, cautiously feeling surface as the break was closing, indicated his mouth all the while, and moderating the great size of the fish which had risen.

Just as the wave was subsiding, and the forked tail of the monarch of the stream was half seen as he descended, that indescribable but well-known turn of the angler's wrist fixed the barbed hook, and taught the scaly victim the nature of the prey he had gorged so easily. "With a wild bound he threw himself three feet out of the water, showing his silver sides, with the sea-lice yet clinging to his scales, a fresh sea-run fish of fifteen, ay, eighteen pounds, and perhaps over. a his speed even while he yields to his fury. "Meanwhile, with the eye of intuition and the nerve of iron, he bounds along the difficult shore; he leaps from rock to rock, alighting on their slippery tops with the firm agility of the rope-dancer; he splashes knee-deep through the slippery shallows, keeping his line ever taut, inclining his rod over his shoulder, bearing on his fish ever with a killing pull, steering him clear of every rock or stump against which he would fain smash the tackle, and landing him at length in a fine, roomy, open pool at the foot of a long stretch of white and foamy rapids, down which he had just piloted him, with the eye of faith and the foot of instinct. "On his broad back, he strikes the water, but not as he meant the tightened line; for, as he leaped, the practised hand had lowered the rod's tip, so that it fell in a loose bight below him. Again, again, "And now the great salmon has turned again, and yet a fourth time he bounded sulky; like a piece of lead he has sunk to into the air with desperate and vigorous the bottom of the deep, black pool, and soubresauts, like an unbroken steed that lies on the gravel bottom in the sullenness would dismount his rider, lashing the of despair. eddies of the dark stream into bright "Jasper stooped, gathered up in his left bubbling streaks, and making the heart hand a heavy pebble, and pitched it into of his captor beat high with anticipation the pool, as nearly as he could guess to B