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 filled with well-selected minnows and chubs. Witha 
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 nery- 
ous, anxious eye I made my cast. Slowly the bait swung 
round, and described an are 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 
