how blue the sky
was with its small white clouds, how inviting the long line of the
mountains across the valley, how sweet the green of the meadows and the
blue-gray of the sage. She was eager as a child.

"The river is that way," said she after a while.

"How do you know?"

"I can feel it--I can feel the water. It's cooler along the stream, I
suppose."

"Well, you've guessed it right," said he. "There's going to be quite a
world for you, so don't be discouraged. Yes, that's the river just
ahead of us--my word! it's the prettiest river that ever lay out of
doors in all the world."

"I can hear it," said she, pausing and listening.

"Yes--that's where it breaks over a little gravel bed up yonder, fifty
yards from us. And here, right in front of us, we are at the corner of
the bend, and it's deep--twelve feet deep at least. And then it bends
off to the left again, with willows on this side and grassy banks on
the other side. And the water is as clear as the air itself. You can
see straight down into it.

"And look--look!" he said, as he stood with her, catching her by the
wrist at the brink. "Down in this hole, right before us, there's more
than a million grayling--there's four hundred billion of them right
down in there, and every one of them is eight feet long! Sim Gage was
right--I'll bet some of them do weigh three pounds. It must be right
in the height of the summer run. What a wonderful country!"

"Here, now," he went on, "sit right here on the grass on my coat. Lie
down, you Tim! That's right, boy--I can't stand this any longer--I've
got to get busy."

Hurriedly he went about jointing his rod, putting on the reel,
threading the line through the guides, while she sat, her hand on the
dog's shaggy head.

She felt something placed in her lap. "That's my fly hook," said he.
"I'm asking you to look at it. Hundreds of them, and no two alike, and
all the nineteen colors of the rainbow. I'm going to put on this
one--see--it's dressed long and light, to look like a grasshopper.
Queen of the Waters, they call it."

"Listen!" said she suddenly, raising a finger. "What was that?"

"What was it? Nothing in the world except the biggest grayling I ever
saw! He broke up there just at the head of the pool where the water
runs deep under the willows, just off the bar. If I can get this fly
just above him--wait now--sit perfectly still where you are."

He passed up the stream a few paces and bega