52 



The American Angler 



companions to accompany me to our 

 camp on Blue River, having received 

 favorable reports of the fishing, and out 

 of a club membership of more than forty 

 I was rewarded by the promise of one 

 who would arrange to meet me at the 

 station for the early train of the next 

 morning. Thankful for the integrit}' of 

 this fellow-angler, and knowing that 

 only some unforeseen contingency would 

 side-track and hold him out, I found him 

 there walking the platform in the crisp 

 morning air, if anything even more 

 eager than myself. A few minutes 

 later we were bowling along in the 

 smoker toward the point where we were 

 to take wagon transportation — a jolt o\ 

 some six miles over the intervening 

 chain of hills — and by noon of the same 

 day we had greeted that important func- 

 tionary, the accomplished camp cook, 

 with the announcement that our appe- 

 tites had been picked up on the wa}- and 

 brought along. 



To render no account in which ex- 

 ploit too frequently fills a prominent 

 place, and to abstain from averment, 

 suffice it that all may rightly conjecture 

 results who know how to appreciate 

 whatever of success, or endure with pa- 

 tience whatever of disappointment may 

 be experienced on such occasions, the 

 assurance being incontrovertible that 

 there need never be fear of the " hard 

 luck " outweighing the general good 

 time hoped for and almost certain to be 

 realized in one way or another in the 

 course of the stay. 



Our one regret was that out of so 

 many who were bidden, only four were 

 there to partake of the feast. Two had 

 preceded us to remain until all were 

 ready to return together ; one, a gentle- 

 man distinguished for high legal at- 

 tainments acquired by close application 

 and hard work, who held every moment 

 to be idly spent that was not devoted to 



his worshipful profession, who for years 

 had burned the candle of life at both 

 ends regardless of the truth that day by 

 day the eye became dimmer, the hair 

 more silvery, the form less erect, had 

 been presented with a fishing outfit, the 

 gift comprehending a fine bethabara rod 

 with reel, line and every properly be- 

 longing appurtenance. 



After unwrapping the parcel deliv- 

 ered by the expressman, the first im- 

 pulse yielded to by the lawyer was to 

 laugh. In course of long association 

 with wits of the bar nothing had so ex- 

 cited his little, frail, benumbed funny- 

 bone like the contents of that parcel. 

 The utter incongruity of the thing was 

 too much for his gravity, and he gave 

 way to laughter such as had never be- 

 fore so convulsed his sides. Of all con- 

 ceivable objects what would he do with 

 such things, and what silly person had 

 remembered him in that way ? 



He did not realize it at the time, but 

 the accident of this peculiar gift was to 

 work a complete transformation in him. 

 One may have a natural bent toward 

 those pleasures to be experienced with 

 the rod and not know it ; may have 

 sipped gingerly at the fountain to drink 

 afterwards deep and copious draughts. 

 Accidental indulgence was to be to this 

 lawyer a revelation ; and, for that mat- 

 ter, the world is full of example of what 

 the accident has done for the good of 

 mankind. That pig which Charles 

 Lamb tells of, first roasted by accident, 

 it was by accident again that men 

 learned to recognize it as a good and 

 savory thing whose succulence pleased 

 the palate. 



One day after the tackle had stood in 

 the corner long enough to accumulate a 

 casing of cobwebs, a new thot;ght en- 

 tered the noggin of this disciple of the 

 law. Something moved him to go out 

 and "fyshe a spell with the angle," 



