74 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



conquest on the other. In a moment the pool 

 was left far back in the distance. Now one rapid 

 and now another was passed. Shallows were 

 avoided and rocks were shunned with a skill which 

 was as marvelous as the wonderful strength and 

 vitality of the fish. A full mile had been thus 

 gone over with lightning-like velocity. The Gen- 

 eral had not for a moment lost either his head or 

 his feet. The line was held with an even hand, 

 and the signs indicated a speedy triumph of 

 mind over matter, and skill over brute force, when 

 (may stale fish be his diet for a fortnight ! ) one of 

 the men, by a wrong movement of his paddle, sent 

 the canoe directly beneath an overhanging tree 

 which compelled the General to lower the tip of 

 his rod, of which the fish took instant advantage, 

 snapped the leader and was off, leaving behind him 

 a cascade of foam and followed by " a blue streak." 

 Such an issue of a hard fight is a terrible test of 

 one's patience, and when his leaderless line came 

 back upon him, limp and empty as a stale joke, if 

 the General had simply said, " Boys, go to camp," 

 he would have proved himself more than mortal. 

 If he uttered any other sentence, the angel's tear 

 which fell upon the hastily spoken word of Uncle 

 Toby, no doubt blotted out all that was super- 

 fluous and unseemly. 



Other incidents of a like character were con- 



