348 



PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



owe you ! Companion in our solitude, amuser in our idle- 

 ness, and soother in our troubles, what happy fancies and 

 castles in the air can we build while watching thy smoke 

 curling gracefully toward the azure heavens or dingy roof- 

 tree ! What hen-pecked husband has not enjoyed your 

 soothing influence when he has escaped to the safety of 

 his sanctum ? The lords of creation owe much to the taste 

 and good sense of Sir Walter Raleigh, the ladies little un- 

 doubtedly the reason that he lives less vividly in our mem- 

 ories than his deserts. 



About an hour before sunset I returned to the field of 

 action, armed, however, with a strong bait-rod and a bait- 

 kettle tilled with well-selected minnows and chubs. With a 

 determination equal to the undertaking of the most ardu- 

 ous and hazardous enterprise, I mounted a minnow-tackle 

 (don't turn away, gentle fisherman, to hide your blushes ; 

 any apologies- which are due I freely tender ; remember the 

 aggravation I had suffered), and boldly stalked into the 

 water a short way above where my tormentor domiciled. 

 In working my way down, I killed several of the smaller 

 gentry, but with these I dealt most cavalierly, they being 

 far beneath my present ambition. At length I reached the 

 very stone on which I stood in the morning, and with nerv- 

 ous, anxious eye I made my cast. Slowly the bait swung 

 round, and described an arc of a circle to the charmed 

 spot. A rush, a dash and a splash, and away flew my 

 line, the reel discoursing sweetest melody (perhaps not 

 sweetest, for the music of the deep-mouthed pack deserves 

 the superlative degree), and I had my gallant tormentor 

 fast. Every effort that ever was successfully perpetrated 

 by fish was put in play. Down and up the stream he fran- 

 tically rushed ; first to one side, then the other, but all with- 

 out avail. Ten minutes of these futile efforts told a tale, 

 and the shortened and less vigorous exertions proclaimed 



