40 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



what it has cost me need not be counted as the quid 

 pro quo was always everywhere. 



I am a persistent angler, as may be gathered from 

 the statement that fishless days innumerable have 

 fallen to my lot, and that when they have come to 

 me in batches of a dozen the thirteenth day has found 

 me hopeful. The red-letter days I have had stand out 

 in bold rehef to tune my brain to happy nights in 

 dreamland during which I see, and catch, much larger 

 fish than those which, in vain moments, I have had 

 stuffed and put in cases. 



To-day I am off to meet a fisherman who has a big 

 trout marked down at Clewer Point and a still bigger 

 one in Boveney Weir. He is a clever and enthusiastic 

 professional Thames trout fisher, whom I have often 

 admiringly watched search a pool with a Uve lure 

 without the aid of what he calls 'the disturber.' 'What 

 do you think, Mr Geen, I say? When they see that 

 cork being jerked back, why, ask yourself, wouldn't 

 you feel as it was something as was going to hit you? 

 These old trout knows yer game directly they see 

 a float, eh? I say. Why, when you do yer best the 

 game is hardly worth the candle, I say, Mr Geen, but 

 if you begin by showing 'em floats it's a mug's game.' 



We met at Windsor, and, as I took my seat in the 



punt, I noticed that X had a trouble, but I did 



not ask the cause as I knew that I should be made 

 acquainted with it soon. 



*No motor-boat as yet, I say, Mr Geen, I say, 

 and not a wink of sleep, I say, not a wink, and some- 

 body else didn't either, and I'll see as she don't until 

 I gets the boat. \\'omen are all very well, but there's 

 no business in 'em; they can't see farther than their 

 noses. What's the use of my telling her there's money 

 in a motor-boat? Not a wink of sleep all night, I say, 

 and there won't be any, I say, Mr Geen; would 

 you?' 



'Well,' I said, 'I think if I were you I should try 



