FISHERMAN'S LUCK 121 



They tell the story of very many absolute 

 failures, and of singularly few even moderate 

 successes. It may be for this very reason that 

 they have from first to last been so kindly and 

 so indulgently received by the Press and by a 

 numerous public ; my good friends may quite 

 reasonably have argued they must necessarily 

 have at least the merit of truthfulness, for who 

 would go out of his way to tell untruthfully the 

 story of his failures ? 



Successes or failures, there is not a day among 

 all those angling days that I cannot look back on 

 with unfeigned pleasure, mixed, it is true, with a 

 melancholy feeling of regret that they belong to 

 a time that is past. 



If, taken as a whole, the days of our pilgrimage 

 are "few and evil," as said the patriarch Jacob 

 unto Pharaoh, I will say at least that few and 

 pleasant have been my angling days. 



One of the many pleasant things about angling 

 is the glorious uncertainty of it. Who, when he 

 goeth forth of a morning full of the true angler's 

 enthusiasm, can foresee or foretell what the day 

 may bring forth ? True, he hopeth with abounding 

 hope that his basket will be filled, but if he returns 

 at the close of the day with his basket as light 

 as it was in the morning, never does he think of 

 exclaiming 0, amid! perdidi diem! Quite the 

 contrary ; he rejoiceth that he has gained ex- 

 perience, and his hope for the morrow is kindled 

 afresh by his failure of to-day. Blustering wind 



