THE NOONDAY ROAST. 



I HAVE often thought that the fly-fisher whose experience 

 does not include the roast or the bake at noonday, has fallen 

 short of some of the pleasures that can be crowded into a day 

 on the stream, and that the angler who has never enjoyed it, 

 has something to live for. The roast has long been an insti- 

 tution amongst the " Houseless :" some of the members of our 

 little club were initiated into its mysteries in days "lang 

 syne," by Chester Darby or Uncle Peter, on the Beaverkill, 

 since which its cuisine has improved, and many pleasant 

 hours have been passed under the dark sugar-maple or birch 

 cooking, eating, smoking, chatting, sleeping ; many a long 

 story has been told, and perhaps occasionally a long bow 

 drawn. 



A provident fisher who leaves his lodging after breakfast, 

 with the proper necessaries for a roast, need not trudge home 

 in the hot sun to get his dinner, or munch his cold snack, or 

 pass his time irksomely or unprofitably during the hours of 

 midday, when Trout merely nip at one's flies in the rifts, and 

 utterly disregard them in still pools. But to begin : 



When the angler leaves his quarters for a day's fishing, let 

 him take as large a portion of a loaf of bread as will suflice 

 for the party, from which he will remove so much of the 

 crumb or inside, as will leave a cavity large enough to hold 

 as much butter as he deems necessary ; after the hole is filled 

 with butter, it is covered with a slice of bread. Then, 

 with salt and pepper, a few matches in one of his pockets, 

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