8 WINTER TALKS ON SUMMER PASTIMES. 



dazzling as molten silver by the sunshine glints which fell 

 upon them through the ever-waving branches of the pine, 

 or birch, or hemlock which over-arched it like a benedic- 

 tion; the pellucid waters of river or lake, whose unruffled 

 surface trembled as fly and leader touched its placid bosom ; 

 the deep pool, cast into deeper shadow by the giant boulders 

 near whicb the lordly salmon rests on his upward journey, 

 and the thousand other ' 'things of beauty" which fill the eye 

 and ravish the senses while watching and waiting, and cast- 

 ing for a "rise." 



These are the pictures most distinctly photographed upon 

 the memory of the appreciative angler, and which come up 

 most vividly before him when he looks back upon what has 

 been. 



Many pleasures leave a sting behind them. Not so this 

 fascinating pastime. It is as harmless as it is invigorating, 

 and as healthful as it is harmless. There are many things 

 for which I am grateful, but for few things more than for 

 my passion for angling and the reasonable leisure always 

 vouchsafed me to gratify it. 



I say "reasonable leisure," because the most of what time 

 I have given to angling has been abstracted from the grind- 

 ing pressure of a busy life. And the fact has, I am sure, 

 intensified my love for the pastime. As the dawn is most 

 gladly welcomed by the weary watcher who is waiting for 

 the morning, so a holiday brings most pleasure to those who 

 have earned it by hard work or patient service. The ' 'cum- 

 berer of the ground," whose only employment is to "kill time" 

 and battle with ennui, has no holiday. He can no more ap- 

 preciate the luxury of "a rest" than can the surfeited gour- 

 mand the luxury of an appetite. But with the busy man, 

 held to the tread-mill of active life through eleven of the 

 twelve months of the calendar year, it is not so. His holi- 

 day is to him what the open door is to the caged bird, the 

 opportunity coveted by the Psalmist, to "fly away and be 

 at rest," to "wander far off, and remain in the wilderness," 

 (Psalm 55, 6-7). Because most of my holidays have been 

 thus wrenched from the ever whirling wheel of time, they 



