33 



CHAPTER II 



EGGS FOR GRANDMOTHERS 



' MY first salmon ! ' What fisherman is there ' so dead 

 in memory so old in heart ' that he does not recall to 

 mind that eventful landmark in his career ? The girl's 

 first ball, the blissful day when the Etonian is told he 

 may get his colours for the eight or the eleven, the 

 election to a scholarship, or the first class or fellowship, 

 the barrister's first brief even if it be ' soup ' at 

 sessions the maiden speech : all these are great days 

 in a career ; but about some of them at least there is a 

 fearful joy ; and they may be damped by the recollec- 

 tions of failure. But the fisherman who has worked 

 his way through minnows, dace, roach, perch, and 

 gudgeon to pike and trout, from paste and gentles and 

 worm, to the delight of fly-fishing, must, if he has 

 the root of the matter in him, have been fired with a 

 higher ambition and longed for the day when he should 

 measure his skill with the king of fishes, whose ac- 

 quaintance he has hitherto m.ide 'beautiful in death ' 



