BOYHOOD WITH THE ROD 27 



the weird places for boggles just as night was 

 setting in. 



This time was the " looking forward " period of 

 boyhood which R. L. Stevenson and W. B. Rands 

 have expressed so well : 



" For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door, 

 And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more, 

 And O, before you hurry up with ladder and with light, 



Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night." 



R. L. STEVENSON. 



and again : 



" I wish I lived in a caravan, 



With a horse to drive like a pedlar man, 

 Where he comes from nobody Knows, 

 Or where he goes to, but on he goes." 



W. B. RANDS. 



It is all there The young observer ; the realm of 

 fancy, of romance, of great desire. The touch of 

 Dick's rod marked the time for me when bows, 

 arrows, and catapults had to be given up for real 

 things. 



1 do not remember whether rods were to be bought 

 for money at that time at old Wilson's, the iron- 

 monger's, but I knew that if I could manage to save 

 up enough money for the things that I could not 

 possibly make, that would be enough. So I set 

 about getting to know how such a wonderful thing 

 as a fishing-rod was made, and was told to make the 



