116 SPECKLED TROUT. 



is to be judged no more harshly ; he is the victim of 

 his genius ; those wild streams, how they haunt him ; 

 he will play truant to dull care, and flee to them ; 

 their waters impart somewhat of their own perpetual 

 youth to him. My grandfather when he was eighty 

 years old would take down his pole as eagerly as any 

 boy, and step off with wonderful elasticity toward the 

 beloved streams ; it used to try my young legs a good 

 deal to follow him, especially on the return trip. 

 And no poet was ever more innocent of worldly suc- 

 cess or ambition. For, to paraphrase Tennyson, 



" Lusty trout to him were scrip and share. 

 And babbling waters more than cent for cent." 



He laid up treasures, but they were not in this world. 

 In fact, though the kindest of husbands, I fear he 

 was not what the country people call a " good pro- 

 vider," except in providing trout in their season, 

 though it is doubtful if there was always fat in the 

 house to fry them in. But he could tell you they 

 were worse off than that at Valley Forge, and that 

 trout, or any other fish, were good roasted in the 

 ashes under the coals. He had the Walton requisite 

 of loving quietness and contemplation, and was de- 

 vout withal. Indeed in many ways he was akin to 

 those Galilee fishermen who were called to be fishers 

 of men. How he read the Book and pored over it, 

 even at times I suspect nodding over it, and laying 

 it down only to take up his rod, over which, unless 

 the trout were very dilatory and the journey very 

 fatiguing, he never nodded. 



