old friend Hubbard, an expert fisherman, 

 of wide experience, assured me that he, 

 many years ago, had discarded the land- 

 ing net; that when he hooked a lake 

 trout, a bass or a "musky," and had 

 played his fish until it was so exhausted 

 that it could be reeled in and led up 

 alongside the boat, it was his practice 

 to "gently insert his hand in the water 

 under the fish and tickle it on the 

 the stomach, when the fish would settle 

 down in his hand and go to sleep, then 

 he would lift it into the boat." 



This testimony took me back in mem- 

 ory to a time, many years ago, at a 

 little red school house on the hill, in 

 a New England country school district, 

 where my young ideas took their first 

 lessons in shooting. "Us fellers" then 

 looked upon boys of twelve and thirteen 

 years as the "big boys" of the school. 

 We still believed in Santa Claus, and 

 we knew that a bird could not be caught 



58 



