

DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY. 283 



twisting and kicking on that vertical spider's web, jumping 

 and bouncing about under your very nose, hitting you 

 in your face, creeping on your shoes, and yet not one 

 do you get. If any tender-hearted person ever wondered 

 how a humane man could bring himself to such 

 cruelty as to impale an insect, let him hunt for a grass- 

 hopper in a hot day among tall grass, and when at length 

 he secures one, the affixing him upon the hook will be 

 done without a single scruple, and as a mere matter of 

 penal justice, and with judicial solemnity. 



Now then the trout are yonder. We swing our line 

 to the air, and give it a gentle cast toward the desired 

 spot, and a puff of south wind dexterously lodges it in 

 the branch of the tree. You plainly see it strike, and 

 whirl over and over, so that no gentle pull loosens it ; 

 you draw it north and south, east and west ; you give it 

 a jerk up and a pull down ; you give it a series of nimble 

 twitches ; you coax it in this way and solicit it in that 

 way in vain. Then you stop and look a moment, first at 

 the trout and then at your line. Was there anything so 

 vexatious ? Would it be wrong to get angry ? In fact you 

 feel very much like it. The very things you wanted to 

 catch, the grasshopper and the trout, you could not ; but 

 a tree, that you did not want, you have caught fast at the 

 first throw. You fear that the trout will be scared. 

 Y~ou cautiously draw nigh and peep down. Yes, there 

 they. are looking at you, and laughing as sure as ever 



