INTRODUCTION 



WELL do I remember my first introduc- 

 tion to angling how a younger brother 

 and I toddled down to the river Aln 

 armed with a piece of string and a few bent pins, 

 how we dug a large worm, and impaling it on 

 a pin carefully laid our baited hook in the shallows 

 of the river where the minnows came to bask in 

 the sun. Then we fastened the line by placing 

 a large stone on the end of it, and lying on the 

 sand watched the minnows, until their numbers 

 covered our worm from sight. Giving them time 

 to swallow it, we ran to the line expecting to 

 find one hooked. Great, however, was our surprise 

 and disappointment, to find that not a single 

 minnow had the courage to eat a worm larger 

 than himself. 



How in later years, when the minnow had been 

 conquered, and we had risen to the dignity of 

 possessing an old rod, we begged from the Pater 

 a fly, and not being able to cast it, laid the rod 

 over the willows so that the fly danced on the 



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