150 FISHING IN EDEN 



Besides the possession of great practical skill 

 gradually acquired from youth upwards, they carry 

 with them a kind of magic of the becks. There 

 was also, and always, in " Bob " an undefmable 

 music of the soul which harmonised with the splash 

 of water and the song of the birds. 



Perhaps these characteristics may be best 

 described as the outcome of a keen and inborn 

 sense of environment. 



The allurement of fishing to such a man was not 

 of the basket alone, but of the great wild. 



As " Bob's " apprentices grew up, and some few 

 of them went forth into the great world, far away 

 from the quiet valley of the Eden, they became 

 more and more conscious of his charm. They 

 knew that he carried with him the secret of the 

 river. Perhaps, too, as the years rolled by, there 

 did come to some few of his disciples something 

 of the real soul of the Eden's music and pastoral 

 beauty. 



