THE HAUNTED TARN 



A NIGHT-FISHING EPISODE 

 " Though sluggards deem it but an idle chase, 



And marvel men should quit their easy chair 



The toilsome way and long, long league to trace, 



Oh ! there is sweetness in the mountain air, 



And life that bloated ease can never hope to share." 



IGHT-FISHING is 



perhaps the most disap- 

 pointing, or, at any rate, 

 the least pleasant, form 

 of angling, and, unless 

 one lives close by the 

 water and can turn out 

 for an hour or two when 

 he knows "the rise" is on, with a com- 

 forting feeling that a cosy smoke-room 

 is close at hand to take refuge in should 

 the trout prove stubborn, it is seldom 

 indulged in. I refer mainly to lake-fish- 

 ing, for the ordinary trout-stream, how- 

 ever good it may be by day, is usually 

 best left alone in the hours of darkness, 

 when one cannot see either where to 



