144 DAYS AMONG THE PIKE AND PERCH 



dition, and I fancy was as big as any that were ever taken 

 from that little stream. That was the luck of a novice ; 

 an expert fisherman would never have got it through all 

 those dangers and difficulties. 



" AU REVOIR " 



And now I must conclude, my space of one hundred and 

 fifty pages is exhausted ; it is not much as you hold the 

 volume in your hand, but it took me a long series of years 

 on a score of different rivers to arrive at that point. I 

 hope to emulate the example and precepts of one of my 

 old masters and pastors, a man who loved Nature and 

 Nature's God for themselves, an honest working-man, who 

 loved sport for its own sake, and lived to a ripe old age. 

 The last time I saw him he turned on the hillside to wave 

 me a last farewell before I went away, and I afterwards 

 thought as the sunlight shone full on that seamed and 

 rugged face, he looked like some grand old ruined cathedral 

 that had been kissed into magnificent loveliness by the 

 glorious rays of the setting sun. 



