Some Truths about Trouting 117 



over and play with me two mornings each week, 

 and I never yet played with a boy without poisoning 

 his young mind to the limit. " Spare the rod and 

 spoil the child " may be true ; but there's an old rod 

 which can be spared for him, so soon as he can be 

 pried loose from his mother long enough for an easy 

 trek nor'rard. 



And why not ? There is no whisper of any evil 

 in the song of the stream, nor one germ of harm 

 in its hurrying flood. The heavenly music of the 

 bobolink's golden bell shaken hither and yon above 

 perfumed meads is only rivalled by the mirthful 

 chuckle or rippling laugh of the trout stream play- 

 ing its ceaseless game from sun to shade of its 

 magic way. 



Boys and tomboys should be given opportunity 

 and encouragement to fish, because scientific angling 

 is one of the cleanest, most instructive, and most 

 fascinating of all our out-door sports. It embodies 

 the true poetry and refinement of sport and this with- 

 out any approach to the over-delicate or unmanly. 

 Keen devotee of the gun as I am, yet I would hesitate 

 to rank shooting as a refined sport above angling. 

 It is possible, by the strictest observance of the true 

 sporting code, to so elevate shooting that it becomes 

 no unworthy rival of angling ; but, unfortunately, too 

 few men ever attempt to make work with the gun 

 the clean, wholesome, educational thing it ought to 

 be. As a rule, there is far too much killing and far 

 too little intelligent study. 



But to the trouting. Your old hand knows that 

 the first few days after the snow-water has run out 

 are apt to be the best. He also knows that it is 



