44 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



next tribute to the stream, and I was ready in the 

 position of my choosing for whatever the fish might do. 



Now expectation cheers his eager thought, 

 His bosom glows with treasures yet uncaught. 



Nerves braced for a struggle, as mine were, need 

 that struggle for their pleasurable relaxation or a jerk 

 ensues which ma}^ be likened to the shock that comes 

 when a cheated foot does not meet the expected stair. 

 The strain which I offered as a challenge produced 

 no answering rush but two or three short half-hearted 

 dives, and then the fish yielded and came to my winding 

 like a sodden log, and an onlooker, much taller than 

 myself, cried : 'Only a barbel,' in such a tone and 

 with such a sigh that I fancied he felt relieved. It 

 was a barbel — the longest, thinnest, ugliest, and 

 beastliest I ever saw. The tall man was anything 

 but handsome, even when he smiled, but he was not 

 in it with the barbel. 



Many rebukes have been cast upon writers on 

 angling that by accounts of special days 'they delude 

 poor wights into the hope that they may do as much 

 themselves whene'er the mood may enter upon them 

 to take it in hand.' I fear that what I have written 

 of Thames trouting may be a deterrent to a novice, 

 so in my next chapter I will change the scene to the 

 prettiest spot on all the Isis, a spot of which I have the 

 happiest memories and where — and near thereby — 

 I have had most of my successes with this fish. 



