Belted kingfisher, heron, mink, and perhaps a furtive small boy with pole and sinker and barnyard worm--these were the only foes the trout might dread.

As for a man and a fly-rod, they knew him not, nor was there much chance for casting a line, because the water everywhere flowed under weeds, arched thickets of brier and grass, and leafy branches criss-crossed above.
"This place is impossible," said Selwyn scornfully.

"What is Austin about to let it all grow up and run wild--" "You _said_," observed Eileen, "that you preferred an untrimmed wilderness; didn't you ?" He laughed and reeled in his line until only six inches of the gossamer leader remained free.

From this dangled a single silver-bodied fly, glittering in the wind.
"There's a likely pool hidden under those briers," he said; "I'm going to poke the tip of my rod under--this way--Hah!" as a heavy splash sounded from depths unseen and the reel screamed as he struck.
Up and down, under banks and over shallows rushed the invisible fish; and Selwyn could do nothing for a while but let him go when he insisted, and check and recover when the fish permitted.
Eileen, a spray of green mint between her vivid lips, watched the performance with growing interest; but when at length a big, fat, struggling speckled trout was cautiously but successfully lifted out into the grass, she turned her back until the gallant fighter had departed this life under a merciful whack from a stick.
"That," she said faintly, "is the part I don't care for.

.