Along with CELIA and ROSALIND

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 150, 22 December 1938, Page 20 (Supplement)

Along with CELIA and ROSALIND

•WTTTHENOrIahdo and I went with Rosalind and V v Celia into the Forest of Arden, or, into what

may pass as such in New Zealand, 1 will swear that no guile entered our innocent minds. It was in the prime of summer time, an afternoon that would have pleased the gods; there were a river harbouring trout, with long ■ rockbound gorges, and a forest in which still could be found pigeon, tui, and bellbird. What greater enchant-, tnent could maiden or youth desire? Wild Nature called, and we answered.

Oi course, 1 will not pretend that our interest ■ wag -wrapped up entirely in wild Nature. We ' found human nature interesting too. At. any rate, I know I did. It was my idea, being the chief Shakespearean in the party, to 'cast us four in roles from "As You Like It." Orlando accepted his name without protest—though I don't think " he has ever opened Shakespeare—and Rosalind and Celia had sufficient acquaintance with the Bard ' to be secretly pleased with their new estate. But they- were at pains not to display their satisfaction. However classical their disguise, they yet remained modern maidens, self-contained and selfsufficient, bearing with' composure any honour that might be thrust upon them.

And I found that modern maidens, or some ol them, dabble in botany. Celia knew many of the riverside plants, and interrupted my fishing from ■ time to time to unload upon me their Latinised -names, which of course I failed to remember, Celia herself being much more interesting. . I should have mentioned before this that Rosalind was attired in "longs" but Celia was in "shorts." . The length of the botanical names that tripped off Celia's tongue was in inverse proportion to the length of her lower garment, and helped to make up any deficiency "that might otherwise have existed. But I confess that I found no deficiency. Celia's learning and her appearance were to me equally attractive, and the Forest of Arden on that summer's day was not a bad place at, all. By and by she called me Adam quite freely. I had cast myself for the role of Old Adam in virtue of both my age and my humility! - - Naturally I did not have too much time to observe the affairs of Rosalind and Orlando. They made a handsome pair, as tall1 as Celia and I were short I felt instinctively that, as ia the real Shakespeare, Rosalind and Orlando were the headliners. Right from the beginning of our up-river progress they were more.thrown together than Celia and-. I could hope to be. Was this due to the instinctive feeling of soul-mates meeting for the first time? I was sentimental enough to hope

so. But there was another reason. -It was as plain as daylight that Rosalind; in "longs," could not

ford without wetting her stylishly<;cut lower garment, or crushing it into concertina folds by tucking it up—a sartorial crime. Orlando, therefore, must carry Rosalind through the fords, which were many. All this, t of course, made for closer acquaintance, and I am sure that if Orlando could have reconstructed the river and could have put

into it twice as many kinks, and twice as many fords over which to transport Rosalind, Orlando's happiness would have been complete.

Compared with Rosalind's dependence (at fords) on Orlando, Celia was independence itself. An active sprite, free as air. An Ariel in "shorts." She forded where she would, unaided; and when we came to deeper water gorges, she climbed like

a goat along the rock walls, looking for orchids in crannies. This was splendid botany, but desplorable fishing. 1 quite failed to convince 1 Celia ' that the. trout is a wary fish, seeingVfrom his mirror ■of crystal water, all movement' above him, and even to a certain angle behind him. While I cast my dry fly delicately upon the surface of the water below, the trout, looking upward at the fly, saw also an enormous insect (Celia) on the rock-wall overhead, whereupon the ; trout fled. Sucft^ fleeing from a fair, visitor was-in bad taste, but" fishlike, ' Whether It appears in "shorts" or in "longs," the human figure is'instinctively distrusted-by; a fish' that lias been hunted for thousands of yeais, and that has-'learned to associate man with cunning little lures concealing a sharp hook. In trout philsophy, pf course, "man" embraces "we-man." Whether the trout knows that women are 'anglers too,- in their own way, I have not the faintest idea." But' I know- that neither woman nor angel possesses a' charm 'to stay the course homeward of any • ordinary sophisticated trout as soon as he has decided that something unusual is moving overhead. For an hour or more after a deal* water trout has been thus alarmed, the 'finest lure will fall upon the water in vain. Somewhere concealed in this caution of trout is a lesson for men. ■>

As' it did not seem to me to be desirable that all trace of fishing achievement should .disappear from this particular afternoon's angling, I redoubled my efforts with the rpd, in proportion as Rosalind and Orlando,- sauntering behind, lost touch with the merely piscatorial side of the expedition. I gathered the impression somehow that Kosalind and Orlando were not quite disagreeing and not quite agreeing either. Rosalind was plainly flattered by the attentions she was receiving, but once I saw her look at her wrist-watch. . -Then my own attention was suddenly called back to the work in hand. At a lucky, moment when; Celia was not silhouetted upon the rocky skyline, I saw a snout emerge from the green water and gather in my fly. No half-rise either, but a.decisive take by a four-.or five-pound fish of the fighting quality that obtains in these clear, cool, pools and rapids. There were agonising moments when he dived for a snag, and I feared that I would lose him—lose him under the eyes of the now excited Celia. for

a moment divorced from botany. But for once the gods were kind. This fish was bagged, and another, and another—at least ten pounds of them. Evidence to al^ the world,' including the at the accommodation house to which,we must return, that our'trip really was a fishing trip, and riot merely an excuse for 'a sentimental sojourn in .the forest. . ;

To discount the latter notion, I decided that 1 would/ be generous if not truthful ( .in telling the fish tale at the accommodation house, and would

"THE ZAAGI"

tell them that Orlando caught at least one of the speckled three. Orlando had an angling reputation,- and his sentimentality must be shielded.

Then, in a rather exciting mariner, botany got on top again. My creel, carrying Celia's plant trophies as well as the fish, was about full. Celia thereupon called for a fishing truce. She had spied a tuft of veronica—one of the catarracta class—in an almost inaccessible position; on a rock ledge overlooking deep water. It was an unusual catarracta—lfe flower was a pretty blue. Wouid I get it? she demurely asked. Of course I would get it. While I was divesting myself of creel and fishing gear in order to climb, Rosalind and Orlando came up. For the first time, Rosalind's attention wandered from Orlando to me. "You'll fall," she said; with an economy of both words and emotion. And she Was right. Near the edge of the ledge, the only foothold and the only handhold gave way together, arid I fell fifteen feet into the cleanest and coldest water. The coveted catarracta remained ill its elevated position. And, as far as I know, it still does. ; /

Celia was somewhat sympathetic, but the incident was in two senses a damper. For Orlando's in-

I terest in Rosalind and my divided allegiance between fishing and botany had dulled us to the flight of time, and it needed cold water and chill eventide to remind me that the sun was far in retreat, and the night was likely to be more than cooL To go back by the way we came, by the long winding river with its many fords, might see us still in the gorges at nightfall. "Do you know a short cut?" asked Orlando. I "thought I did. We left the river to strike across the ridge, cutting- out half the distance. But my luck had ended with the landing of the last fish, and the ducking had given me a cold feeling and, the foreboding of another defeat

There was now no longer any loitering on the part of Rosalind and Orlando. By a common understanding they seemed to be urging me on, Rosalind openly consulting that wrist-watch; and there

is no better way of causing a man to lose a track in the bush than by hustling.him. By and by we were forced to the conclusion that the short cut was proving a long one. Twice I had to order a retracing of steps and a retreat from a thicket of dense scrub in places wherej if we had kept the right direction, there ought to have been easy open going under beech trees. On the third occasion on which we were thus checked, I put down my creel, with fish arid plants, in order to climb a tree for a look into the near-setting sun. When we restarted, I, now worried, forgot the creel. Later, when Celia asked me about it, in fear for her precious.plants, I had to say that the creel was beyond recovery so far as that evening was concerned, arid perhaps for all time, for the reason that makes a needle in a hayloft difficult to discover. Besides, nt the creel sustained three hours of the morning sun and flies, its contents would be fragrantly unapproachable, as most anglers know. :

Breaking this news to Celia was like falling into the river a second time. Celia froze. I was frozen already.

Even worse was in store: At the next forced halt, Orlando took .me aside, and said: "Have you really lost the way?"

"Of course I have," I replied,

"Well," he answered, "I believe you, but the girls don't. They think that you are playing a trick, and if so it's a.very serious trick, because Rosalind has to meet her fianqe, who arrives by the evening train. And I learn that he's inclined to be jealous."

"Fiance!' I didn't Know there was a fiance," I faltered.

"Neither, did I," answered Orlando, "but these N things have to be. By degrees I have learned from Rosalind of her predicament (the fiance and the train), and,. also of the suspicion—that you are shamming lost, because she laughed at you in the water. Remember that we are New Zealand

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gentlemen, and that, even if we do go into the bush with other men's fiancees—not knowing them to be such, I swear it!—we always return the goods within contract time."

"Other men's fiancees," I gasped, "is Celia in the same position?"

"Of course she is." Thus for the. first time I realised the long and short of it. I

Well, we did get out of the bush that night, but not in time to meet the evening train, and my apologies were all in vain. How the affianced straightened out their tangles I do not know. I was left wet, flshless,; suspected, 'despised. From now on there is but one kind of angling for innocents like me, and I will walk no more in the Forest of Arden with Hosalind and Celia.