90 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



and then you will almost automatically find yourself checking 

 the forward movement at the right point. That right point 

 will be just before your forearm, still kept tense and working 

 on the elbow joint, comes to the horizontal. Check it there 

 and the line will then go out ; but after the check lower your 

 hand a little further still, otherwise the outgoing of the line 

 itself will suffer check. And this you do not want. You 

 want the line to go out smoothly, straightly and evenly, and 

 to alight lightly on the lawn. This the further slight drop 

 of the arm after the check will permit it to do. The cast is 

 made. 



I have hinted that you will be little short of an infant 

 prodigy in the angling way if you achieve this measure of 

 success even once after very, very many bungles. I have 

 not said this for your discouragement, but exactly with the 

 opposite object in order that you may not be disappointed. 

 At first you are likely to feel your case to be hopeless and to 

 be inclined to think that you never will succeed. Then, all 

 at once, by some happy chance of accurate timing, the line 

 goes out comparatively well. It is a blessed moment ; it 

 seems as if it were a gift of some fairy godmother suddenly 

 vouchsafed. And the first time that this happens pause a 

 moment and examine this gift. Ask yourself, " What was it 

 that I did this time differently from the time before so as to 

 produce this miraculously beautiful result ? " Ask yourself 

 that, and if you can answer the question satisfactorily you 

 will have gained a distinct step you will at least know what 

 to try for. Accurate timing is of the very essence of the 

 business, and this is an accuracy that you have to appreciate 

 through your fingers by sensation ; but you can help yourself 

 towards the blessed end by mental attention also. It needs, 

 in fact, all your faculties. In the immortal words of the 

 Scottish gillie to the Professor of the " humaner letters," 

 " it's verra easy teaching they boys Greek and Latin, but it 

 tak's a mon wie a heid tae thraw a flee." 



