IN MEMORIAM. 143 



with the same spirit, he had induced me to accompany him, 

 We were soon on the bank of the river, which was just 

 clearing off after a flood. How well can I remember every 

 incident connected with that first lesson in angling ; how 

 patiently my cousin showed me how to put a minnow on 

 the spinning flight, curving it so skilfully, that when drawn 

 against the stream, it looked like one straight line of silver, 

 and how expectantly I looked on, watching anxiously the 

 result. I had not long to wait. A sudden splash, the glimpse 

 of a bright golden side gleaming through the water, and the 

 bending of his rod, proclaimed the capture of a good trout. 

 He soon had it tired out, and then showed me how to net 

 it. This victim was soon followed by another, and then 

 comes a third. I was delighted, never before having wit- 

 nessed anything of the kind. From that very hour I was 

 a fisherman at heart, and at the present time am quite as 

 great an enthusiast as ever my cousin was. I only wish 

 that I could add " and as great an adept." 



Yes, every moment of that happy half-holiday comes now 

 as forcibly to my mind as though it happened yesterday, 

 instead of well-nigh eighteen years ago. 



The next scene, some three years later, a bitter cold day 

 in December, with a slight cover of snow upon the ground, 

 the sky a steely blue, the hedges and trees sparkling with 

 icicles. We had both left school now, and were about to 

 enter upon the sterner lesson of life, viz., that of earning 

 our own living ; but still, every day that we could get, and 

 the evenings as well in summer time, were devoted to our 

 favourite sport. Under my cousin's tuition 1 had advanced 

 considerably in the gentle art, and could now hold my own 

 with most people ; on the present occasion, however, we 

 were on our way to a village some seven miles distant from 

 Ripon to fish with worm for grayling, a kind of sport much 

 in vogue on the Yorkshire rivers, and known among the 

 angling fraternity as " swimming the worm." We reached 



