PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 123 



could not receive a challenge from a fish without 

 returning an impetuous " strike " on the instant. 

 One may " strike " too soon as well as too late. 

 In angling, as in everything else, there is a " happy 

 mean" just the right mode and moment to 

 strike your fish without imperilling your tackling 

 or tearing the hook from his mouth. To invari- 

 ably compass this right moment requires steadier 

 nerve, greater forbearance and a nicer appreciation 

 of time and opportunity than falls to the lot of 

 most anglers. A few have the gift ; but it only 

 comes to old trout fishers after much practice and 

 many discomfitures. 



Our friend had been casting half an hour at " a 

 gay gambolier " whose special vocation seemed to 

 be to leap at nothing and keep just a tail's breadth 

 from the lure sent to him. His disportings proved 

 his agility but were provokingly tantalizing ; and 

 DUN was just ready to give him up as " a hopeless 

 case," when he made a dash for the fly and was 

 astonished to find himself hooked. With a rush 

 and a leap which eclipsed all his previous demon- 

 strations, he started for the opposite shore as if in 

 a hurry to deliver some message he had forgotten. 

 It was just the last place in the neighborhood of 

 the pool one cared to have his fish take to, for it 

 was full of jagged rocks and hidden bowlders. 

 Aware of this, DUN instantly did his best to bring 



