66 Old Days on the Farm 



about such inconsequent affairs. He may, it is 

 true, have a word to say about ''the big one" that 

 he hooked but got away, but it ends there. It's 

 your grown-up fisherman who usually carries some 

 *' inspiration" with him that has not been dipped 

 up from the rill, that deals in fishing "history." 

 Fish stories would, therefore, be out of place 

 here. 



Never knew a small boy go off a-fishing who 

 carried a lunch along. He would always be in 

 such a hurry to get away that he 'd forget all about 

 such an unimportant thing as that. I was, in a 

 way, one of the most fortunate of the juvenile 

 disciples of the Immortal Izaak who roamed along 

 the Avon in the good old days. My grandparents 

 lived on the banks of that classic stream and, it 

 usually happened, that I'd pull the latch-string at 

 that hospitable old home at the right moment. I 

 have on memory's films a picture of a kindly old 

 lady who used to "stuff" a hungry young fisher- 

 man to his "tummy's" capacity. 



THE DEAB OLD DAYS 



Even if you have reached the age, dear reader, 

 when the actual exertion of fishing would tire you, 

 in the glorious month of May or June, in duty 

 to yourself, you should let your mind drift back 

 to those shady pools of boyhood's happy days. I 

 don't know of any more loving retrospection when 

 "care has cast her anchor in the harbour of a 



