PREFACE 



it back into the deep, and who called D 's 



attention to a fine large trout rising in a nearby 

 pool. 



"I 've been watching him for an hour; he's 

 all of seventeen inches; cast in there and you will 



get him," quoth the mentor; which D did 



and got him. 



Then he inquired of the amiable and portly 

 one: "Why didn't you cast for him yourself?" 



Now, what was the answer? Just this: 

 "Well, I'm pretty well fed up on trout; and it's 

 kind er warm; and I'm kind er tired; I'm fishin' 

 fer suckers today." 



Angling in America unquestionably is having 

 a rapidly-increasing growth in popularity and 

 particularly since the introduction of the casting 

 of artificial bait with the short rod, of the dry 

 fly, and of nature books; and it barely is possible 

 that any matter-of-fact individuals who by 

 chance may be inveigled into perusal of these 

 modest lucubrations, may not leave them with- 

 out some glimmer of light shed on the mystery 

 of how it is that "just fishin' " can worthily stir 

 the emotions and claim the interest of the most 

 exalted intellects. 



As a natural reaction when the present sol- 

 emnly, fatefully, and sublimely glorious times for 



