THE TALE OF THE FISHES 



graciously expressed. It is life for the best things, the 

 highest things. 



Such a life the genuine angler normally lives. He 

 gathers the spiritual interpretation. To him, all mat- 

 ter is ensouled. The quiet woods are conscious. Such 

 a man was my colleague at Columbia University, Gen- 

 eral William Pettit Trowbridge, Professor of Engi- 

 neering, and a fellow member of the Hammonasset 

 Fishing Club of New Haven. After his untimely 

 death in 1893, I wrote the following commemorative 

 poem in quatrains modeled after those of Fitzgerald's 

 translation of the Rubaiyat, and entitled it "May 

 Memories." It utters the spirit of true angling as I 

 interpret it, and is here given to the American reader 

 for the first time. 



MAY MEMORIES 



(Meo Amico Jucundo) 



The days have come when we were wont to dream 

 Of blossom'd branch, bird song, and plenteous stream. 



That bosom friend and I. Ah! me, how sad 

 To word alone the old heart-cheering theme. 



i8 



