224 Recreations of a Sportsman 



I could make two hundred feet, and close in on 

 it before it knew what happened; but the mo- 

 ment it saw the boat, the fish was away, the 

 reel shrieking, the rod groaning (as to the ex- 

 cited imagination rods seem to groan dismally 

 at times just before they buckle or break), and 

 presto ! the yellowtail is three hundred feet away 

 in another direction, the reel having lost all the 

 line gained in a hysterical fashion. Again I 

 cried, " full speed ! " and as the little propeller 

 struck the water, bent to the work, reeling fast, 

 while we flew seaward, rounding up as the fish 

 turned quickly. Steady! now I had him, not 

 twenty feet away; the launch backed, tried to 

 stop, the fish plunged, and then back at me, 

 like a long lash, came the line, and I consoled 

 myself with that proverb of content, " There are 

 as good fish in the sea as ever were caught," 

 which is particularly applicable to these waters 

 given over to the kind of 



" sport that wrinkled care derides." 



This happened to me several times a day, and 

 possibly to the rest of the party sometimes, and 

 there was always the feeling of satisfaction that 

 so good a foeman had come into his reward, 

 even if he had wrecked a four-dollar line and so 

 incensed the engine that it balked and sulked for 

 an hour. 



