cloud toward the overhanging mosses and ferns.

But though the place was attractive enough to have kept him there for
hours, and he wondered why he had not come to have a good look at it
sooner, he felt that if he meant to catch any fish that day he must be
stirring.

There was a well-trodden path along by the river, which beyond the
waterfall ran on in a continuation of the gully but here the walls
opened out rapidly, till a few hundred yards above it became a lovely
little sunny valley, with rocky masses piled near the bed of the little
river, made beautiful by the abundant growth. The ferns were much
bigger than any he had yet seen, and the path wound in and out in many a
zigzag, now toward the sloping sides of the ravine, now toward the
sparkling, torrent-like stream, over which drooped many a bough, as if
for the sunshine to rain through in a silver shower upon the water
beneath, which flashed gloriously where the bright rays fell.

"I don't wonder at father choosing this place," thought Nic. "It grows
more beautiful every way one goes."

He must have wandered and climbed in and out for a couple of miles
before he grasped why it was that the path was so well beaten. A moist
spot in a shady part, where the river was just upon his right, showed
this, for the narrow track was printed all over by the hoofs of sheep,
and he knew now that the footpath was their work, made when in hot
weather they had selected the moist shades for grazing; while at a turn
a few hundred yards farther on he had an indorsement of his surmise, for
the slopes of the valley had grown less abrupt, and as far as he could
see one side was dotted with creamy-white fleeces.

And now in the more level ground the torrent had become a swift, bright
stream, bubbling and rippling here, swirling round in eddies there, and
again becoming dark and deep-looking.

He gazed down into the transparent water, but his research was not
rewarded by the sight of dark, gliding forms with sinuous, waving tails.
Still, though no scaly prizes offered themselves for capture, there
were plenty of other objects to attract him. Every now and then some
beautiful butterfly flitted across the water, and twice had he paused to
gaze with pleasant vexation at a lovely streak of wavy blue, as a
kingfisher darted from its perch to fly up the stream.

"Well, I do call this tiresome," he cried, taking his fishing-rod from
one shoulder to change it to the other. "If this h