DAYS ON THE NEPIGON. 



asked him to substantiate a statement regard- 

 ing some fishing excursion and its results. 

 "Excuse me, please/' says Barney, "you will 

 have to swear to your own story, for I have 

 all I can attend to remembering and manag- 

 ing my own; and I don't always succeed at 

 that ; for I have been smoked out more than 

 once by seemingly innocent questions that set 

 me to blushing and thinking." So, while 

 from the angler's point of view, custom and 

 habit and expectation warrant some deviation 

 from the strict line of truth, this little record 

 will be "the truth, the whole truth and noth- 

 ing but the truth," u to the best of my knowl- 

 edge and belief," so far as in me lies, not even 

 excepting justifiable intervals. 



We are very like Cassandra (I believe that 

 was the name of the young lady of mytholog- 

 ical times), who invariably spoke the truth, 

 yet was never believed; so perhaps one, es- 

 pecially the angler, is sometimes partially 

 justified in drawing the long bow. Truth 

 seems so narrow a path, to a few of our genial 



fraternity, scarcely more than a poorly defined 

 8 



