OUTDOORS 



she catches and execrates the ones that wrig- 

 gle off the hook and slide back into the water 

 again. She smoothes back the locks of 

 hair that the impudent wind has disarranged, 

 and carefully tucks them away with the aid 

 of the ever-mysterious, ever-present hair-pin. 

 She takes care occasionally that her hat is on 

 straight, and fishes in a bewilderingly attrac- 

 tive costume that ought to reconcile the fish 

 to their fate. Her exclamations are many and 

 varied, and her good-humor is intensified with 

 each fresh capture. 



The proverbial patience of women is not at 

 its best in angling. Where a down-trodden 

 worm of a man will sit meekly for hours 

 glaring at a cork, a woman will lift the bait 

 twenty times in half an hour to see if there 

 was not a nibble. She is impatience itself if 

 the fish do not exert themselves to bite, and 

 she rapidly gets disgusted if they quit biting 

 after having started in with promising sud- 

 denness. If she is of a dreamy, poetic nature 

 she will be calling attention to some lovely 

 bit of color in the west or north at critical 

 moments when sturdy perch or obtrusive 

 bluegill have gone down with the cork. 

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