k towards the upper end of the rock. The tiny royal coachman
falls like a snowflake on the water, and the hare's ear settles like a
bit of thistledown two feet beyond it. Nearer and nearer the flies come
to the rock, until at last they cover the place where the last cast of
the hand-line fell. There is a flash of purple and gold in the water, a
great splash on the surface,--Leviathan has risen; Willibert has struck
him; the royal coachman is fast in his upper lip.

At the same instant the fisherman at the lower end of the pool feels a
tightening of his line. He gives it a quick twitch with his right hand,
and prepares to pull in with his left. Leviathan has taken the bait;
Cotton Mather has struck; the hook is well fastened in the roof of the
fish's mouth and the sport begins.

Willibert leaps to his feet and moves towards the end of the point.
Cotton Mather, feeling the heavy strain on his line, wades out towards
the deeper part of the pool. The two fishermen behold each other, in
the moment of their common triumph, and they perceive what lies between
them.

"Excuse me," said Hopkins, "but that is my fish. He must have taken my
bait before he rose to the fly, and I'll be much obliged to you if
you'll let go of him."

"I beg your pardon," replied Jones, "but it's quite evident that he
rose to my fly before you felt him bite at your bait; and as I struck
him first and hooked him first, he is my fish and I'll thank you to
leave him alone."

It was a pretty situation. Each fisherman realized that he was called
upon to do his best and yet unable to get ahead of the other without
danger to his own success,--no time for argument surely! Yet I think
they would have argued, and that with fierceness, had it not been for a
sudden interruption.

"Good morning, gentlemen!" said the voice of Orlando Cutter, as he
stepped from the bushes at the mouth of the brook, with a landing-net
in his hand, "I see you are out early to-day. I came down myself to
have a try for the big fish, and Miss Gray was good enough to come with
me."

The rosy, laughing face of the girl emerged from the willows. "Good
morning, good morning," she cried. "Why it's quite a party, isn't it?
But how wet you both are, Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Jones,--did you fall in
the water? And you look vexed, too! What is the matter? Oh, I see, both
your lines are caught fast in the bottom of the pool,--no, they are
tangled together"--(at this the fish gave a mighty splash