Fisherman's Luck 



"Never believe a fisherman when he tells you that he 

 does not care about the fish he catches. * * * Watch him 

 on that lucky day when he comes home with a full basket of 

 trout on his shoulder, or a quartette of silver salmon covered 

 with green branches in the bottom of the canoe. His face is 

 broader than it was when he went out, and there is a sparkle 

 of triumph in his eye. 'It is naught, it is naught,' he says, 

 in modest depreciation of his triumph. But you shall see that 

 he lingers fondly about the place where the fish are displayed 

 upon the grass, and does not fail to look carefully at the g 



scales when they are weighed, and has an attentive ear for 

 the comments of admiring spectators. You shall find, more- §j 



over, that he is not unwilling to narrate the story of the 

 capture — how the big fish rose short, four times, to four 

 different flies, and finally took a small Black Dose, and J 



played all over the pool, and ran down a terribly stiff rapid g 



to the next pool below, and sulked for twenty minutes, and 

 had to be stirred up with stones, and made such a long fight = 



that, when he came in at last, the hold of the hook was 

 almost worn through, and it fell out of his mouth as he 

 touched the shore. Listen to this tale as it is told, with end- 

 less variations, by every man who has brought home a fine 

 fish, and you will perceive that the fisherman does care for 

 his luck, after all. ' ' § 



— Henry Van Dyke. 



