286 CANADIAN TURF RECOLLECTIONS 



and then quick as a flash he tumbled to the language he 

 had used and joined me in a hearty laugh over the invol- 

 untary explosion. If you are a follower of old Ike of 

 revered memory, don 't run any such risk. Examine every 

 inch of every yard and test it before you leave on your 

 trip. Look to it also that the moths have not invaded 

 your fly-book and played havoc with your choicest 

 samples. 



Anything that has a suspicious look about it discard. 

 Eternal vigilance is the price you have to pay if you wish 

 a perfect outfit. Then the joy is yours of knowing that 

 if a two, three or four-pounder gives you the slip, it was 

 not through defective tackle, but simply because your 

 skill was not a match for his cunning, or else, perchance, 

 he had not been hungry enough to take a firm hold. 



One of the cleverest and most popular doctors that 

 practiced in Toronto a quarter of a century ago, a man 

 of wonderful ability in his profession and possessing a 

 magnetic personality, was also an enthusiastic angler, 

 but of all the men I ever knew he was the most forgetful 

 that ever handled a rod. One time he was up with me at 

 Flesherton in Grey county, and, mindful of his treacher- 

 ous memory, I warned him as we were about getting into 

 the conveyance that was to take us to the river, to look 

 over his belongings and see that everything was there. 

 Like most men with his failing, he asserted he never for- 

 got anything. We drove a distance of thirteen miles, and 

 when we reached the river bank and commenced to pre- 

 pare for the work in hand, the doctor discovered he had 

 come away from the hotel without his rod. On the fol- 

 lowing day, while we were fishing the pond at Purdy's 

 Mills, it was decided to divide the party and fish both 

 sides of the pond and fish the river also for half a mile 

 up both the east and west banks. Just as I reached the 

 first bluff and had worked my way down to a convenient 

 ledge from which to reach a very promising looking pool, 

 the doctor hailed me from the west side with the declara- 

 tion that he had left his book of hooks down at the mill 

 and having broken the one attached to his line, was badly 



