112 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



I can answer for that rod, for at times it did more to 

 keep me occupied than my own. The wielder of it 

 protested mildly that he could manage well with his 

 own net, but it grew upon me that he rather liked me 

 to be a witness of the fact that he could cast a fly 

 \\ith or against the wind as bends in the river might 

 demand, could strike the fish hghtly, play it with skill, 

 and bring it, with head held up, shding upon its side 

 to where the net was held. 



Success begets such confidence that casts can be 

 ventured between two overhanging boughs, that only 

 inches separate, away on the other side, and the fly 

 made to drop so independently of its attachment as 

 to delude the big fish which has its harbour there, 

 while without the success that nerves the arm you 

 may catch a twig and lose a hook. The sport he 

 had thus far enjoyed without mishap was intoxicating, 

 and emboldened him to make casts from difficult posi- 

 tions to such dangerous spots as showed that he dared 

 misfortune, but of course such daring, when continued, 

 has to pay the penalty by loss; discretion comes 

 afterwards. 



By lunch-time we had twenty-one fish, and, success 

 being assured, the standard was raised to a pound 

 and a half. It only required a moment's thought while 

 \'iewing the two takes to conclude that a dozen of the 

 best would have been a better picture without the 

 others than with them. 



We were very hungry, and thirsty too. I know 

 nothing of the miseries of hunger — for which I desire 

 to be made humbly thankful — but I know much of its 

 joys, and the greatest of them is a crust of bread and 

 cheese and a drink of beer, \\dth one eye on half-full 

 creels of November grayling, and the other on the 

 glowing, happy face of a hungry son, who, being in his 

 lusty youth, eats faster and drinks deeper than 

 3'ourself. 



No one that has tried it can deny the soothing 



