440 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 28, 1904. 
AND 
Why Not?-n. 
_i The experience of one of my friends who a year ago 
introduced his wife to the pleasures of angling in Florida 
and other States, led me to write for Forest and Stream 
an artilcle which I called "Why Not?" This article called 
forth an editorial on "Women Afield." 
' The recent experience of another friend, who seems to 
have simplified the problem of field companions, leads 
me to another effort to show that many women have the 
same taste and drsire for out-door life that men do, and 
iii time can become just as expert in the art of angling 
as their stronger brothers. Still further, a more sensitive 
organization, with more delicacy of touch, enables the 
women to enjoy the sport much more keenly than some 
men do. 
men. Men think they need recreatioiT^and change, and 
say so; while women know they need i^^^d don't talk so 
rriuch about it. " 
■ It was about thirty days ago that my friend drifted into 
my den one evening and filled his pipe from my tobacco 
jar, and after settling himself comfortably in my easy 
chair, deplared with a fine display of enthusiasm that he 
was going trout fishing and that he was going to take his 
wife and her dear friend, Miss Mabel, along. He added 
that he considered men at best a selfish lot, looking only 
to their own pleasure, and forgetting that a wild rose bush 
by a brookside makes a prettier background in the picture 
of a woman than of a man. Continuing, he said that, to 
his mind, there was no reason why Miss Mabel and his . 
wife should not become expert fly-casters, and take, ad- 
vantage of the physical good that one naturally derives 
from such diverting exercise, and gladden his hours by 
the camp-fire as well as at home. I liked the thought so 
well that I begged him to go on, telling him that he was 
always interesting, but to-night more so than usual. 
"Well," said he, "my theory may seem a bit foolish, 
and I know it to be expensive, but I am going to put it 
to the test. Men are capital companions at the lunch 
table, they talk flies and rods, IpII fish stories, and enter- 
tain one splendidly, but many of them, if given the chance, 
will crowd you away from the l>€st pools of a brook. Not 
so with a woman; she is willing to be led." 
I have had the pleasure of meeting my. friend a good 
many times since the visit when lie said these things, and 
each time I saw him he seemed more and more anxious 
to be off on this proposed fishing trip, declaring that 
he was glad enough on his own account but that by mul- 
tiplying his own keenness by the number in his party, he 
was made four times glad. j i- u r 1 
Since he returned from his trip I have had a delighttul 
evening with my angling friend, and I declare it makes 
life better worth the living to see a man so stripped of 
his cares that he becomes a boy again. It was quite late 
when he left me sitting in an atmosphere blue with smoke 
but sparkling with the remembrance of the delightful 
sensations of some glad hearts along the rushing waters 
of a trout stream. 
Late as it was, it occurred to me that while the at- 
mosphere he had created remained unchanged, I ought to 
tell of his experiences in introducing these dear ones into 
the somewhat strenuous mysteries of trout fishing. 
After he had filled his pipe he declared that he had 
just had the best fishing trip of his life, and then he went 
on- "Never was there fairer sky or more perfect miant 
summer than the day we left New York Every plant and 
tree and blade of grass was a graceful _ flag of shaded 
green. The cowslips were resplendent ni their yellow 
beauty, and the whole world just looked as though it 
had put on a new frock as we sped along northward on 
our errand of fish, feast and fun. 
"The weight of years seemed to slip away from the 
shoulders of Miss Mabel's father just as though the load 
were in the wrong place; my wife drifted back through 
the haze of time to the 'jack-straw' period, and 1 looked 
at her with the blindness of a boy again. Miss Mabel s 
eyes assumed the color of the late afternoon heavens, and 
seemed as peaceful, and thus we journeyed on 
"At 8 -IS we reached Livingston Manor, and there found 
Mr. Royce's team from Debruce waiting for us. It was 
during that six-mile drive that I personally felt the 
retrogression of time. As we approached a meadow and 
heard the chorus of its inhabitants chantmg their evening 
hymns, sweet and solemn in the gloom, of night, thirty 
odd years seemed to disappear, and again i was a Dare- 
footed boy on the farm driving home the cows for the 
evening milking. I seemed to be moved back to thai 
time of youth when the whole world is f» l of mystery, 
and when the rough and soiling phases oi ^iie thzt^e^ 
must learn later are then unknown, to the days that then 
seemed long and hard— days that I know now were of 
the halcyon sort. ... 
"Rovce's roosters did not have the heart to crow at the 
time tender voices bade us awake next niornmg, saying 
th^t it was time to go fishing. Jou ought to have seen 
thnL an<^elic anglers at breakfast; they wore_ their 
waders "wtateS and landing nets. This was their day, 
Seed; that is, they thought it was, and here is where 
was proved that a woman's reasoning power is greater 
than a man's. I was willing to concede the longest half 
of Sie Sy to them-surely they begun it early enough- 
gut I wai SOW^OOOa time would mark their finish until 
another sun. Events proved the folly of my judgment, 
as you will see. 
"The sun had clirnbed the eastern side of the mountain, 
and was peeking with glowing eye into the valley of the 
Willowemoc as we entered the pretty brook near the 
bridge in the hamlet of Willowemoc and commenced fish- 
ing — and laying a lasting and rock bottom foundation 
under my dear old theory. One of the many causes of my 
lack of sleep the night before was how to bait, and handle 
SAFE FOR THE TIME BEING. 
my charges, and maintain my peace of mind. ■ As I am 
somewhat the junior of Miss Mabel's father, I naturally 
wanted to see him fish undisturbed, and being the 
stronger man of the two, it seemed fitting that I should 
be the one to be leaned on. Any suggestion to the ladies 
of angling with worms was certain to be repelled; then, 
too, the father and I both used flies, why shouldn't they? 
Why not, pray? And yet the Willowemoc is no ten-acre 
lot, either. So flies were decided on — the dull hues and 
woolen body of a Cahill. 
"While Miss Mabel's father was arranging his attrac- 
tions, I led the daughter to the opposite side of the 
stream and placed the wife in an equally advantageous 
position, and called time, at the same time filled my 
vvaders dodging under the bridge. 
"Never before in my life had it been my fortunate lot 
to commit to the laughing waters so many attractions, 
ip'lies went swirling through the air in all directions, oc- 
"from brook to man. 
casionallv including the right one; my warmth in the way 
of admiration warmed the brook water in my boots. 
Those anglers plunged and slipped, struck anxious atti- 
tudes wonderful to behold, cried, 'Isn't it lovely?' 'Doesn't 
the water feel splendid?' 'Isn't the air charming?' 'Did 
you ever see such a morning?' 'Isn't it glorious?' and— 
'Oh, dear, my flies are caught!' and, 'Dear me, so are 
m.ine!' 'Did you ever see anything so stupid? Now, did 
you?' , . . . 
"I tell you, old fellow,, it was glorious— sort of a series 
of joyousness and anxiety, smiles and frowns; mostly 
flowers, few thorns. Supposing I did have two trees to 
rlimb on two sides of a river at the same time, what dif- 
ference did it make? I- was thankful for each climb, and 
i was gettin<y everything I went after, except trout, and 
at this time "the thought of net getting some fish didnt 
annoy me. Wasn't I to have the afternoon to myself on 
the brook while the tired novices slept? Rises there were, 
sometimes in plenty; mystification set iij; theories were 
advanced; Miss Mabel's father instrueted and I preached. 
In the meantime we had moved down the brook just a 
hundred yards, mostly in bunches, and we had four miles 
to do to meet the carriage and lunch basket. 
"Now, I remember when I was a boy my father dropped 
me over the side of a boat to teach me to swim, and I 
swam. It was rough water I made, but I got ashore. 
Why not abandon our charges and let them wade? It 
seemed a good idea ; so with Miss Mabel's father as a rear 
guard to gather up the fragments, I struck off down 
stream, and I tell you, my boy, that was where I made 
a big mistake, and nearly lost my job and popularity at 
the same time. When I got back an hour and a half later 
I was sorry I hadn't gone an hour and twenty-nine min- 
utes sooner. I found them within a hundred yards of 
where I had left them, and Miss Mabel's father was as 
completely blocked as a trolley car would be with a broken 
down truck on the track. A smile has saved many a life, 
but on this occasion it would have been fatal. I got busy, 
instead, and once more the procession got in motion. I 
would move Miss Mabel down stream a hundred yards or 
so and then take the wife a lap further, and then a lap 
for Miss Mabel. Then it occurred to me that four miles 
for them meant sixteen miles for me, and at that rate we 
would get our lunch at midnight exactly ; so we all moved 
together, and wasn't I a proud one, though? I had a 
clinging woman hanging on each arm depending on me 
for support and lunch over as slippery a way as was ever 
trod by a woman. I have often wondered since whether 
it was laughter, fatigue, heat, or hunger, that made Miss 
Mabel's father take to the woods. We reached our 
camping place at two o'clock, about as jaded an outfit as 
ever struck a trail. 
"Here was where we all came into contact with the 
mysterious pleasures of the camp-fire. Water from a 
near-by spring was soon boiling, the coffee was made, and 
the feast to the hungry was spread. Personally I felt in 
perfect sympathy with King Richard during his first visit 
with Friar Tuck. 
"When we had finished eating, I selected just the right 
spot, dragged extra robes frOm the carriage, made beds, 
and bade those fair ones rest. This — I thought — was to be 
the men's half of the day, or rather that portion of it 
that was left ; but not so. Before that camp-fire had died! 
out, those two trout brook explorers were at it again ; 
the repacking of dishes was left to the driver of the car- 
riage ; that carriage we had ordered to take the ladies 
to the hotel went back empty, while three miles of brook 
laid between us and dinner. 
"On this memorable afternoon I undertook a new role. 
Instead of clim.bing trees after flies, I only had two small 
hooks to bait with angleworms. I also became an adept 
in the way of draping skirts (those skirts have been 
shortened since). If it hadn't been for the baiting of 
hooks. Miss Mabel's father and I would have had some 
great fishing that afternoon. You see, in bait-fishing we 
could lead the ladies to the edge of the pool and tell them 
to stay there until they got a bite, and the pools were a 
nice distance apart; or get them on a rock in the middle 
of a rapid and tell them to wait there for a bite; but at 
this stage of fishing one of them couldn't touch an angle- 
worm at all, and the other one couldn't without gloves, 
and she hadn't brought her gloves along, and thus we . 
journeyed on until night found us with bodies weary but 
spirits untamed. We dined at eight o'clock in rubber 
boots, sweaters and landing nets, as at breakfast,_ and, 
strange as it may seem, we had plenty of trout for dinner. 
"The older chickens had filled their cratvs and were 
scratching for the young ones next morning when we re- 
minded our sleepy companions that it was time to go fish- 
ing again, and it was wholesome and reassuring to note 
the alacrity with which they responded to_ the call. I tell 
}'ou that a -woman in a game she likes is a wonder. - I 
sometimes think a man gets his grit from his mother. 
"This morning we entered the brook where we had left 
it the night before, and all with a greater degree of confi- 
dence. The day before both Miss Mabel and my wife 
knew they would fall down ; this morning they only 
thought they would. You see, they were learning fast. 
Miss Mabel could take her eye off her uncertain and un- 
even path long enough at a time to behold with critical 
eye the wondrous beauty of her surroundings, while the 
wife concluded she could stand alone, and give thanks to 
heaven that she had married a fisherman. They saw every 
bird that crossed the brook, and every bubble created by 
a trout. They had got their eyes open, and my, oh, my, 
weren't they using them, and it was then and there that 
I came to the conclusion that I didn't care if I never 
caught another trout if I could only have them along to 
do it for me. 
"They found pretty settings of forest and stream, and 
used the camera; they each caught some trout; they 
waded many parts of the brook unassisted, and put away 
the foolish thought of falling down. / 
"By a shaded pool we rested ; the lunch basket arrived, 
and i built a fire on the rocks by the margin of water ; 
Miss Mabel's father cleaned the fish, the wife continued 
^fishing, while Miss Mabel photographed the evolution of 
the trout from brook to man. • , 1. 1 
"Night again came on us while we were m the brook, 
but only a short distance from the Hearthstone Inn. We 
regretted the shortness of the day, yet were grateful, in- 
deed, for the rest known only to those whose ears know 
the sound of a brook^ and whose feet have felt its rocky 
bottom. _ 
