IN THE CATSKILLS 



will not tempt the fish ; the bait must be quick and 

 fresh. Indeed, a certain quality of youth is indispen- 

 sable to the successful angler, a certain unworldli- 

 ness and readiness to invest yourself in an enterprise 

 that does n't pay in the current coin. Not only is 

 the angler, like the poet, born and not made, as 

 Walton says, but there is a deal of the poet in him, 

 and he is to be judged no more harshly; he is the 

 victim of his genius: those wild streams, how they 

 haunt him ! he will play truant to dull care, and flee 

 to them; their waters impart somewhat of their 

 own perpetual youth to him. My grandfather when 

 he was eighty years old would take down his pole 

 as eagerly as any boy, and step off with wonderful 

 elasticity toward the beloved streams; it used to 

 try my young legs a good deal to follow him, spe- 

 cially on the return trip. And no poet was ever 

 more innocent of worldly success or ambition. For, 

 to paraphrase Tennyson, 



" Lusty trout to him were scrip and share, 

 And babbling waters more than cent for cent. ' ' 



He laid up treasures, but they were not in this world. 

 In fact, though the kindest of husbands, I fear 

 he was not what the country people call a " good 

 provider," except in providing trout in their season, 

 though it is doubtful if there was always fat in the 

 house to fry them in. But he could tell you they 

 were worse off than that at Valley Forge, and that 

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