232 Night-Fishing. 



the character of the angler. But he knows that 

 a big " take " is not the only element in a fisher's 

 happy lot. 'Tis a sweetening and soothing influ- 

 ence truly, and we have nothing but compassion 

 for the angler who is one only in name ; but he 

 merits reprobation as well as pity whose whole 

 heart is in his creel, and whose joy dies with his 

 sport. The true angler is a lover of Nature as well 

 as a lover of fish ; and alike in the golden sunlight 

 that gladdens her children and in the silent night 

 that lulls them to repose in the " gowan gem that 

 spangles the lea," no less than in the far-off stars 

 that stud the blue he finds a charm to win and 

 a call to adore. If his experience of the night 

 make him no keener a fisher, it will at least leave 

 him no worse a man. Poacher of an "honest" 

 angler it cannot make ; poet it may. And as he 

 " feeds reflection in the dusky shade," his glowing 

 thoughts will find a tongue to reach night's ear, and 

 his serenade of love will wake her from her sleep 

 to blush her thanks in day. 



