"O no, no," said the little fly, "To ask me is in vain; For who goes up your winding stair Can ne'er come down again.

He could not understand dry-fly fishing, always using the old-fashioned sunk fly.

A hardy-looking, brown-faced man, with close-cropped black hair, and a mild countenance, sat on a table by the window, making artificial flies, for fishing.

["As the result of a conference called by the War Office it has been decided to wage a war of annihilation against the warble-fly.

[a] The above is a version of the song, "Busy, curious, thirsty fly.

None of us, however, were much in the style of the "melancholy Jacques," or, with our eyes on some vigorous fisherman higher up the river, we might have begun: "And yet it irks us, these bright speckled trout, Being native swimmers in this river, should From their own limpid pools, by gay, false flies Be cruelly decoyed.

In the meantime a light fly had been prepared, and off I started for Geneseo.

On rainy days in these months good sport may be had with the wet fly; and in September a yellow dun, or a fly that imitates the wasp, will kill, if only you can keep out of sight, and place a well-dried fly right on the fish's nose.

Tommy Grasshopper, Johnny Cricket and Willy Ladybug were playing on a high bank of the river, and watching the little fish jumping after tiny flies and bugs that fell upon the surface of the stream.

[a] The above is a version of the song, "Busy, curious, thirsty fly.

[a] The above is a version of the song, "Busy, curious, thirsty fly.

" The spider turned him round about, And went into his den, For well he knew the silly fly Would soon be back again; So he wove a subtle web In a little corner sly, And set his table ready To dine upon the fly.

Tom had already contrived seats of twisted branches beneath them, and it was very pleasant to sit there in the evening and watch the glorious colors of the western sky, which Annie compared to the changing hues of a pigeon's neck, or the glancing of the brilliant fire-flies that night brought forth from their hiding-places under the leaves.

On a sudden open fly With impetuous Recoil and jarring Sound Th' infernal Doors, and on their Hinges grate Harsh Thunder, that the lowest Bottom shook Of Erebus.

By the North American Indians, the plantain or "way-bread" is "the white man's foot," to which Longfellow, in speaking of the English settlers, alludes in his "Hiawatha": "Wheresoe'er they move, before them Swarms the stinging fly, the Ahmo, Swarms the bee, the honey-maker; Wheresoe'er they tread, beneath them Springs a flower unknown among us, Springs the white man's foot in blossom.

"I would stay here one year if I thought there was a chance of seeing her again, but if she wants me to fly I guess I had better fly.

Return, Philander, whither wouldst thou fly? Phi.

She had risen a strange fish, the cunning beauty, and now she was trying her fancy flies over him one by one.

They are "cocuyos," or luminous flies, which the stylish put in their hair, like so many living gems.

There is the clapper's tink-a-link, tink-a-linkan interval of silencethen the occasional tink, tink, tink, to be followed, perhaps, by a repetition of the first-named sounds, varied occasionally by a compound of all, caused by the animal flinging its head to free itself from troublesome flies or mosquitoes.

There are two other flies which appear in the end of September and continue during October, if the weather be mild; a large yellow fly, with a fleshy body, and wings like a moth; and a small fly with four wings, with a dark or claret coloured body, that when it falls on the water has its wings like the great yellow fly, flat on its back.

Somnolent shopkeepers in dim back parlours coyly veiled their faces in red handkerchiefs from the too ardent flies, while small boys left in charge noticed listlessly the slow passing of time as recorded by the church clock.

BITING FLIES

This, or a claret bodied fly, very similar in character, may be likewise found in March or April, on some waters.

again the nations downward fly; And wide-stretch'd kingdoms perish from my eye.