260 AN ANGLER'S HOURS xiv 



Though confidence certainly aids success 

 it does not ensure it, and even in the new 

 corner bites came not. It seemed, indeed, 

 as if distance had lent enchantment to the 

 view, and the doubt returned in even more 

 insidious fashion. What if there were no 

 more veterans left anywhere in the pool ? 

 This possibility was very discouraging, and 

 he began idly to look about him. By his 

 side was the bag containing the absent 

 brother's earth-worms. He took it up and 

 inspected the contents ; they were notable 

 earth-worms, finer and more considerable 

 than his own. Still idly, he abstracted one 

 and considered it, and after a while it 

 seemed to him that it would be as easy to 

 place it on his hook as to return it to the 

 bag. This he accordingly did, and then, 

 having committed the earth-worm to the 

 deep, he began to meditate on other matters. 



He was aroused by two occurrences, one 

 the return of the successful angler, the other 

 an undoubted pull at his top-ioint. To this 

 he gave his attention first, and answering the 

 pull he found that he too had hooked a large 

 fish, which behaved in much the same 

 manner as the first veteran. The positions 



