32 FISHING FOR PLEASURE 



meadow which shut me out from the road the 

 lad had long since gone home with the trap, so 

 there was no outlet that way. 



There was nothing left for me but to face the 

 hill and so find the path at the top which sane 

 people take. Ah! that hill. I reached the top 

 at last, a climb not discreditable to a youth of 

 nineteen, but for an old boy more than four 

 times that age it was an effort to be proud of. 

 The hill was so steep that one could only wonder 

 how the enormous oaks and elms which clung to 

 its side could drive their roots into it in such a 

 way as to maintain their hold. It was so steep 

 that for most of the way I had to throw my net 

 and rod up ahead of me and then scramble up 

 on my hands and knees, grasping at anything I 

 could get hold of, and when I got to the top I 

 cried "Excelsior!" But on looking down over 

 the ground I had clambered up I felt terrified. 

 Coming up step by step it did not seem so dan- 

 gerous or so difficult, but to look down it seemed 

 almost to impel me to take a jump, which, barring 

 being dashed against one tree or another, must 

 have landed me souse into the deep river, an 

 almost perpendicular plunge, just as if one were 

 to spring from the top of the cross of St. Paul's 

 and land somewhere in Cheapside or Ludgate 

 Hill. 



After such a climb as that I felt that with a 

 little practice I might walk up and down the 



