244 AN OPEN CREEL 



a solitary Jardine snap-tackle. I do not understand 

 (C) at all, and I have no explanation to offer; but, 

 taking out the bottle and the fly, I let it pass for pike 

 tackle, and replaced the lid. 



(D) really did hold spoons one of them with a 

 yellow tassel, by the way ; and (E) had some also, 

 besides two or three very rusty wire traces and some 

 spinning leads. (F) was a horrid sight phantoms, 

 devons, wagtails, and the like, all jumbled up and 

 inextricable, with triangles everywhere. The only in- 

 spiration the spectacle gave me was a sound one, so 

 far as it went. I took the indiarubber fish out of (I), 

 placed it in (F), and then put the spoon with the brown 

 and red tassel on top of it to keep it down. Then 

 I shut the lid quickly, and tied a piece of string round 

 the box. I am glad to say I have not seen the fish 

 since. Into (G) I did not look ; it is so large, and has 

 had so much put into it at one time or another, that 

 its interior would unman anybody in town. In the 

 country one would feel more able for the task. I just 

 put it into a kitbag with the other boxes, so that it 

 should be there if wanted. Then I went straight out 

 to them that sell and purchased a new stock of spinning 

 flights, some live-bait tackles, wire, swivels, leads, and 

 everything which should make me independent of my 

 old stock. 



When Caradoc and I next day reached the little 

 country inn, I got all my gear out and placed it on the 

 sitting-room table. He looked at the stack of boxes 

 and then at me. " No man," he said reprovingly, 

 "possesses so much tackle as that." He little knows, 

 for I did not enlighten him. The new acquisitions 



