the general public, who soon
would ruin all the fishing here as they have almost everywhere else, but
I have no desire to keep off decent fishermen like yourselves; and I
know the young men who are with you now.

"You are just in time for the evening rise. I was over and picked out a
couple for breakfast just now. If I were in your place I would go
straight across and then work up the stream a little way, to some big
holes you will see, then you can fish on down about as far as you like.
By being careful at the crossings, some of you can keep to the stream
pretty much all the time, but you can fish from the bank if you are
patient. Toward dusk there will be fish enough rising from almost any
one hole to give you all the fishing you will like.

"I think you will find a very small gray hackle will be good. Sometimes
they take the Professor. Just the other day a man came down here with a
little Silver Doctor fly, and they couldn't keep away from it. Sometimes
they take Queen of the Waters--dressed long, like a grasshopper--in the
bright time of the day. If they take little flies in the evening, then
you use little flies, too. There are certainly plenty of the grayling
there."

On any stream but this the number of rods now present would have spoiled
the sport for some one, but so extensive was the good fishing water that
there was room enough for all six of those who intended to fish--Billy
said he would go along and carry the basket for Jesse, and Con O'Brien
laughed at the idea of fishing, as he had already had so much that
summer; so he went with Uncle Dick. They broke into three parties, one
each of the men going along with one of the young anglers, although
Chet and his friend were so used to the stream that they needed no
advice. These two for a time did not fish at all, but showed the
newcomers how and where the sport would be found.

The prediction of the rancher was more than verified. The day had been
warm, and now, as the cool of the evening came, the grayling began to
rise. At the heads of the bluffs where the current swept in they could
be seen breaking almost continually, taking in some small floating
insects. Inside of a few minutes each of the anglers was fast to a fine
fish; and after that one strike after another followed fast and furious.

"You will have to be careful, son," said Billy Williams to Jesse, who
had raised three fine grayling and lost them all. "The mouth of a
grayling is very tender. Yo