DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 105 



face. Hurry up, keep to your right hand, if they 

 ain't both wrong uns.' 



This comphmentary invitation was responded to 

 by our ever-ready friend in a brief sentence from 

 a store he keeps ready for emergencies that need 

 a special brand. Taihng off from the djring sound of 

 the energetic one's voice came my loud laughter, 

 which, when joined in by the other tvv'O, must have 

 sounded ver^' unusual and evidently untramplike to 

 our unseen listener, as he discovered by it who we 

 were, apologised and came to our rescue with a lamp, 

 and was most assiduous in helping us away with 

 brightly burning lamps that we might not lose our 

 selves again. 



We reached the farm-house safely, and the farmer 

 guardian and his family much enjoj^ed the literary 

 man's dramatic recital of our reception at the work- 

 house. 



Live-baiting for pike is quite a secondary pleasure 

 to spinning for them, but there is a variety of reasons 

 why a live bait is at times preferred, even by those 

 who are fully cognisant of this fact. 



In lakes and ponds the largest pike frequent deeper 

 water, are more dehberate in their movemxcnts, and 

 require much more coaxing than the smaller ones, 

 so the bait has to be of a larger size and move slowly 

 to give time for the slow rising of a big fish. 



In rivers where trout are prized and the pike are 

 regarded as vermin, your sportsmanlike ideas are 

 dulled by the dominating wish to get the voracious 

 brutes out, and the surest method is then adopted; 

 you lay siege to them, in the pools that they frequent, 

 with live baits that will go in search of them with 

 such varied movements that even a trout-full fish 

 grows curious to know what such proceedings mean, 

 and at last curiosity grows too strong and. Eve-like, 

 he takes a taste and pays the penalty. 



The dehght of roaming and casting a spinning lure 



