192 WOODLAND IDYLS. 



fishing was good, as it ever is, the catching poor, 

 only four bites in three hours and one small 

 sized catfish hooked. Leaving there a throw line 

 with three hooks attached and also three set 

 poles at other pools, all baited with mussels, I 

 thus have a chance, six chances in fact, for fish. 



Ah, this element of chance, how much it adds 

 to the hope and happiness of us mortals here 

 below. It gives to the fisherman hope, to the 

 trapper hope, to the gold seeker hope, to the 

 hunter hope hope to all others who go out to 

 hunt for something on the face of mother earth. 

 And hunters are we all from the day we first 

 toddle out to hunt dandelions or sea shells to the 

 day we die, hunting still perchance for health 

 or a place where we may prolong our lives. In 

 all our hunting hope is the lodestar which leads 

 us on, hope and the elements of chance of luck. 



The main attraction which fishing ever has 

 for all people, old and young, is its element of 

 uncertainty. 'Tis an affair of luck. If I have 

 a line set with three hooks on it I can hope over 

 night that in the morning a big catfish will be 

 on each hook. I have three chances where with- 

 out the line I would have none. It is this ex- 

 pectation that adds joy to the fisherman's life, 

 to the hunter's and trapper's privations. As a 

 boy I trapped and when I went to bed at night 

 the last thing of which I thought were the 

 chances I had, six, or eleven, or twenty-one, ac- 



