where I thought it possible, with such an incentive, to get down within
reach of the water: by careful manœuvring I slipped my pole behind me
and got hold of the line, which I cut and wound around my finger; then
I made my way toward the end of the log and the place in the rocks,
leading my fish along much exhausted on the top of the water. By an
effort worthy the occasion I got down within reach of the fish, and, as
I have already confessed, thrust my thumb into his mouth and pinched
his cheek; he made a spring and was free from my hand and the hook at
the same time; for a moment he lay panting on the top of the water,
then, recovering himself slowly, made his way down through the clear,
cruel element beyond all hope of recapture. My blind impulse to follow
and try to seize him was very strong, but I kept my hold and peered and
peered long after the fish was lost to view, then looked my
mortification in the face and laughed a bitter laugh.

"But, hang it! I had all the fun of catching the fish, and only miss
the pleasure of eating him, which at this time would not be great."

"The fun, I take it," said my soldier, "is in triumphing, and not in
being beaten at the last."

"Well, have it so; but I would not exchange those ten or fifteen
minutes with that trout for the tame two hours you have spent in
catching that string of thirty. To see a big fish after days of small
fry is an event; to have a jump from one is a glimpse of the
sportsman's paradise; and to hook one, and actually have him under your
control for ten minutes,--why, that is paradise itself as long as it
lasts."

One day I went down to the house of a settler a mill below, and engaged