74 THE ANGLER AND HUNTSMAN 



gust on his face. Of course, this was my queue to accord 

 him the " horse-laugh," which I forthwith did. 



But I had yet to learn the truth of that time-worn adage 

 that, "he who laughs last laughs best." It was my turn 

 next to land something, which I was most certain was a 

 member of the finny tribe of the black bass species. But 

 it was not. What I landed was a dum-goozled old hard- 

 shell turtle. 



This was Doc's time to laugh, and he laughed so hard 

 tears stood out on his cheeks. It was me that was the 

 "goat," after all. 



Memories of outings on the rivers and lakes come back 

 to each of us, as does this memory of that fishing trip up 

 the Licking River with my friend Doc. Nothing can 

 erase such pleasures from the human memory. They will 

 be recalled, perhaps, in days of stress and worry, and serve 

 as a tonic, mayhap, to many an old man that has commenced 

 the journey down the western slope of life. He will find 

 new strength to buoy him up in his declining years as he 

 remembers the glowing days of his youth and manhood, 

 when with rod and reel and tackle-box he wended his way 

 joyfully down by the old mill-stream, or to the meadow- 

 brook, or beside the lake, there to while away pleasant 

 hours, enticing choice specimens of the cool depths there- 

 from by the employment of his angling art. 



Art it is indeed! It takes pure, unadulterated art to 

 make a successful fisherman, whether your tackle be sim- 

 ple in construction, or magnificently modern. Here is 

 another thought: "It is not clothes that make the man," 

 so neither is it tackle that makes the angler. It is his art 

 and his ability to apply that art that counts most. Good 

 tackle, of course, is indispensable, but of itself it avails 

 nothing. Placed in the hands of one not accustomed to 

 the ways of the wily trout, the mighty salmon, the battling 

 black bass, tackle is nil, but placed in the hands of the nat- 

 ural-born sportsman, educated to the ways of the craft, 



