120 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



other instant was dangling from the limb of a 

 neighboring tree into which he had been elevated 

 by the excited angler. And there he Imng for 

 twenty minutes from an inextricably tangled line, 

 which was only recovered, with what depended 

 from it, after such turbulence as to render any 

 further angling in that pool impracticable for the 

 day. But in spite of his awkwardness he saved 

 his trout, was made happy by his success, and over- 

 whelmed me with thanks for my courtesy. 



The Judge may not have been more grateful, 

 but he entered upon his work with more grace and 

 skill. His first casts were made with becoming 

 caution, as if feeling his way for the open joints 

 in the harness of a crafty witness. He was too 

 wise an angler to drop his fly into the centre of the 

 pool abruptly. Like a wary General, he worked 

 his way to the heart of the citadel by " gradual 

 approaches." A novice would have charged him 

 with undue timidity, just as impatient lookers on 

 sometimes accused him of irrelevancy when cau- 

 tiously drawing the net of his irresistible logic 

 around his bewildered victim in the witness box 

 during that famous Brooklyn combat of intellect- 

 ual giants. He knew what he was about then ; he 

 knows what he is about now. He was too wise a 

 lawyer to thwart himself by inordinate haste ; and 

 he is too skillful an angler to hazard success by 

 undue precipitancy. Foot by foot his casts were 



