16 FLY FISHING 



exercise and open air, use for the body as well as 

 freedom for the mind. Youth asks for something 

 more, and finds it in excitement. These are the 

 three great requisites for the recreation of healthy 

 vigorous boyhood exercise, open air and excite- 

 ment. They are to be found in fine quality in 

 games and in sport, and in both it is probably 

 excitement which at first we care for most con- 

 sciously. As we grow older a change takes place. 

 Let us analyse, for instance, the pleasure in games. 

 At first we desire only to win we think only of 

 that ; we play the game as boys read an exciting 

 story, with a feverish anxiety to know the end. 

 The next stage, as we grow older, is more intelli- 

 gent, and we begin to understand the qualities 

 of good play. We improve year by year, and 

 take pride in the increase of our own physical 

 prowess, of which the limit is not yet seen. 

 Then from understanding we pass to an artistic 

 admiration of good play for its own sake ; we 

 become judges of how the thing should be done, 

 and we are critics of style. Competition is then 

 desired, not solely for the excitement it provides, 

 but as a stimulus to good play; we no longer 

 seriously expect to improve in our own play , but 



