ADDENDUM 



My self-appointed task is done. Another volume of 

 the series of fishing books I have in mind is about to 

 leave my study to journey to the publisher and the 

 public. It is my book no longer. And I strangely 

 find myself loath to let it go, so much of myself is 

 written into it, bound up in it. I think it is something 

 like the experience that comes to us when our girls 

 grow up, marry, and go away into the world. Some- 

 thing has gone out of our lives, ours yet, but ours no 

 longer. This book is yours, reader, and when you 

 reach this page I hope and trust you will have en- 

 joyed your journey one-half as much as I did mine, 

 blazing the trail. You have found things to criticize 

 and you have found things to praise. Be kindly in the 

 first and moderate in the latter, and I shall be satis- 

 fied. Little book, good-bye. It does not seem to- 

 night that I can love the book I shall begin upon to- 

 morrow as much as I do you. But be that as it may, 

 I shall always have a warm place in my heart for you. 

 Again, little book, good-bye. 



The Author. 



197 



