The Upright Angler 61 



right up to any angler he might espy, no 

 matter how slight the acquaintance, and in- 

 quire, ' What sport ? ' He must have often 

 been puzzled, if not downright nettled, at 

 the strange and chilling repHes he received 

 from anglers kneeling in the grass, regard- 

 less of wet knees, or lying almost flat down, 

 and casting to a fish from that ridiculous 

 position. Anglers whom he thus cheerfully 

 accosted and joined would in some instances 

 actually get up and stalk angrily away, with- 

 out uttering a single word, or, at any rate, 

 only one word, and that a very short, sharp 

 one. Possibly he regarded such conduct as 

 pure eccentricity, only to be looked for in 

 anglers who could not fish standing up like 

 men, but must needs crawl about on their 

 bellies, like the lowest of the brute creation. 



He was quite without prejudices and affec- 

 tations in regard to the size of the fish he 

 took. When he got a trout or a grayling 

 out of the water he put it into his creel. 

 Some foolish fellows were fond of talking 

 about a limit and so forth, but he never 



