"What is life, after all, but just going a-fishing all the time, 

 casting flies on many rivers and lakes, and going quietly home 

 as the day is ending ?" — W. C. Prime. 



" This fishing story is at an end ; not for want of material, for 

 there are other scenes and other times of equal pleasure that 

 crowd my memory as I write these lines. And so it will ever be 

 to you, my friend,, should you, even in your later years, take up 

 the angler's art : it grows with its growth, and strengthens with 

 its strength, and, if uncurbed, may perchance, with many of us, 

 become a passion. 



"But, for all that, it will fill the storehouse of our memories 

 with many a scene of unalloyed pleasure, which in the sunset of 

 life we may look back upon with fondest satisfaction. 



"If in the minds of any one of you who as yet are ignorant of 

 the charm of fishing, as it has here been revealed, 1 have induced 

 the desire for a test, ' Stand not upon the order of your going, but 

 go at once,' provided it be the season, and, the word of an old 

 fisherman for it, you will thank me for these random pages." — 

 Charles W. Stevens. 



