, lay gleaming beyond; and the view was bounded by
a glorious wood, which crowned the gentle slope, at the foot of
which the river ran. Another considerable body of water, which
had been carried off above from the main stream to flush the
water meadows, joined its parent at this point; it came slowly
down a broad artificial ditch running parallel with the main
stream; and the narrow strip of land which divided the two
streams ended abruptly just below the lock, forming a splendid
point for bather or angler.

Tom had fixed on this pool as his _bonne bouche_, as a child
keeps its plums till the last, and stole over the bridge,
stooping low to gain the point indicated. Having gained it, he
glanced round to be aware of the dwarf ash-trees and willows
which were scattered along the strip, and might catch heedless
collars and spoil sport, when, lying lazily almost on the surface
where the backwater met the stream from the meadows, he beheld
the great grandfather of all trout, a fellow two feet long and a
foot in girth at the shoulders, just moving fin enough to keep
him from turning over on to his back. He threw himself flat on
the ground and crept away to the other side of the strip; the
king fish had not seen him; and the next moment Tom saw him suck
in a bee, laden with his morning's load of honey, who touched the
water unwarily close to his nose. With trembling hand, Tom took
off his tail fly, and, on his knee, substituted a governor; then
shortening his line, after wetting his mimic bee in the pool
behind him, tossed it gently into the monster's very jaws. For a
moment the fish seemed scared, but the next, conscious in his
strength, lifted his nose slowly to the surface and sucked in the
bait.

Tom struck gently, and then sprang to his feet. But the Heavens
had other work for the king fish, who dived swiftly under the
bank; a slight jar followed, and Tom's rod was straight over his
head, the line and scarcely a yard of his trusty gut collar
dangling about his face. He seized this remnant with horror and
unsatisfied longing, and examined it with care. Could he have
overlooked any fraying which the gut might have got in the
morning's work? No; he had gone over every inch of it not five
minutes before, as he neared the pool. Besides it was cut clean
through, not a trace of bruise or fray about it. How could it
have happened? He went to the spot and looked into the water; it
was slightly discolored and he could not see