170 THE TROUT ARE RISING 



think it a good omen if some one in this way 

 wishes me " Good luck ! " or "Tight lines ! " or 

 " Hope you'll have sport ! " And it often 

 happens, for angling is productive of much good- 

 will and fellowship. One morning, just as I was 

 starting out in waders, a stranger remarked, 

 cordially : " Wish I were coming with you ! " 

 Obviously, he was a fisherman. I found later 

 that this was the case. Formerly a distinguished 

 barrister, he was now a County Court judge, and 

 he was there on his circuit. It was a human 

 touch, " Wish I were coming with you ! " 



I remember a similar expression of quick 

 sympathy of much older date. It was in the old 

 reporting days in Johannesburg, when I was 

 " diarized," as the phrase is, to report a sermon 

 by one of the Church of England mission which 

 came to South Africa in 1904. It was a sermon 

 worth listening to, and worthy of the space the 

 Press gave to it. In the vestry I had to see the 

 preacher afterwards. He remarked on the variety 

 of a reporter's life, and I confessed that 1 had not 

 expected to be doing a sermon. I had, in fact, 

 hoped to be at the big boxing encounter that night 

 at the Wanderers. " I should very much have 

 liked to be there myself," said he. Afterwards, 

 I learned that he had been a great boxer at 



O 



Oxford ! If his attainments in that direction 

 were as powerful as his preaching, he was a host 

 to reckon with. 



What angler does not retain happy memories 

 of " the friendly lift " which is the result of a 



