"What luck on the brook to-day, Sir?"
I was asked on my way from the stream,
As the moon peeped through the bushes
And the grasses began to gleam.
"Luck has been with me to-day, Sir.
The sun shone bright and warm,
Flies hatched out with the noontide,
And filled the air with their swarm.
"The spinners were steady in flutter
Like airplanes sailing on wings;
Duns dipped swift to the water
And dimpled the pools with their rings.
"Caddis crawled up on the stone-sides
Leaving their houses behind,
While the bottom was covered with cases
For the hungry fish to find.
"The banks were green with new grasses,
Big ferns were unfolding their fronds;
The trees bending over the water
Waved new leaves under Spring's magic wand.
"Remember that long pool below there
Where the water runs till and fine?
I cast up the outgoing current
And never made mark with the line;
"The rocks where the water just bubbles
And eddies by in a spume,
With the foam whirling round the corners
And the flies piling up in the turn:
"The lunch and the fire which made it,
Under the big birch trees
Near the spring with its croaking bullfrog
And the bank with the buzzing bees;
"Surely luck was with me to-day, Sir;
I left my heart in the stream,
My body is weary to-night, Sir,
But I have lived the stuff of my dreams."
~ E. R. Hewitt