Lines. 51 



your line to its influence, since it will then dry more in 

 one day than in three if kept in-doors. 



But the preparation of a line by any of these proc- 

 esses, is a nasty, tedious, and ill-smelling job. It is far 

 better to pay seven or eight cents a yard for a good en- 

 amelled waterproofed line to some good house. You 

 may feel pretty confident you will wish you had done 

 so before you get through preparing one yourself. 



Select a line not too long in stock. Before buying, 

 try the strength of the exposed end of the line, and if it 

 breaks easily have nothing to do with it. Ask the deal- 

 er's consent to this, which, if he refuses, try elsewhere. 

 For the best makers or their employes sometimes make 

 mistakes, and rot the line in the process of preparation. 

 This will at once be detected on proving it in this way. 

 This precaution should never be neglected, lest you 

 "sound the depths of dark despair," as did the writer, 

 who, on one occasion, was caught as follows in the wilds 

 of Maine, with a brand-new tapered forty-yard line then 

 used for the first time, and bought from a most reputa- 

 ble dealer. For months the trip had been anticipated 

 and prepared for. You know, or if not, may you soon 

 know, the April fever of the trout fisherman that rest- 

 less longing for the green woods and silvery stream 

 which precedes the opening season when no matter 

 how happily he may be circumstanced, something essen- 

 tial seems wanting. If it has a parallel, it is only in the 

 sensations of the confirmed smoker, who, in a moment 

 of weakness and repletion, has " sworn off." 



The legion, who, without other cause, have committed 

 this folly, and who remember with what longing they 

 looked towards the appointed time, and the halting march 

 of the carefully counted days, unrelieved by the assur- 



