186 THE BOY 



III. THE BOY AND THE ANGLE 



NOT solely for the scientific angler with his eight- 

 ounce rod, silken line, and flies cunningly fashioned 

 to resemble no living thing, are all and the chief est 

 delights of the gentle pastime. There is one of 

 humble estate in the brotherhood of the angle who 

 makes no pretensions to skill, and uses the most 

 uncouth and coarsest tackle, to whom it yields 

 supremest enjoyment. He never cast a fly, and 

 knows no " green drake " but him of the duck pond, 

 no "doctor" but the village practitioner who gives 

 him an occasional nauseous dose, no "professor" 

 but the "deestrict" schoolmaster, and if he ever 

 heard of a split bamboo, thinks a split pole must 

 be a poor stick to catch fish with. He wants no 

 reel to wind hi his fish with, but "yanks" them 

 out and lands them high and dry and safe from 

 return to the flood, casting them the length of 

 pole and line behind him. This is, of course, our 

 young and unsophisticated friend, the boy of the 

 country, he who remains a boy till he has grown 

 big enough to go a-fishing, and perhaps never be- 

 comes a young gentleman, but keeps a boy's heart 

 within him, and a boy's ways until he becomes a 

 man. He does not always wear a torn hat, nor 

 always trousers in which he feels most at ease if 

 sitting down when big girls are about, nor does he 

 always go barefoot from spring till fall, though he 



