Part 22

50. Reuben Wood.

51. Red Spinner.

52. No. 68.

53. Hawthorne.

54. Dorset.

55. Widow.

56. Grasshopper.

57. Stebbins.

58. March Brown.

59. Shoemaker.

60. Orange Black.

61. King of the Water.

62. Gen: Hooker.

63. Gray Drake.

“The angler atte the leest, hath his holsom walke, and mery at his ease, a swete ayre of the swete savoure of the mede floures, that makyth him hungry; he hereth the melodyous armony of fowles; he seeth the yonge swannes, heerons, duck’s, cotes, and many other fowles, wyth theyr brodes; whyche me semyth better than allé the noyse of houndys, the blastes of hornys, and the scrye of foulis, that hunters, fawkeners, and fowlers can make. And if the angler take fysshe; surely, thenne, is there noo man merier than he is in his spyryte.”—Dame Juliana Berners.

“Skill, and trained skill at that, does the good work, and the angler’s score is just in proportion to his knowledge of ‘how to do it.’”—Wm. C. Harris.

“A gray-haired bait-fisher is very rare, while the passion for fly-easting, whether for trout or salmon, grows by what it feeds upon, and continues a source of the highest pleasure even after the grasshopper becomes a burden.”—George Dawson.

“It is not the number of fish he captures that makes the angler contented, for the true angler can enjoy the mere casting of the fly if he has only an occasional fish to reward his efforts.”—“Random Casts.”

“The great charm of fly-fishing for trout is derived from the fact that you then see the movements of your fish, and if you are not an expert hand, the chances are that you will capture but one out of the hundred that may rise to your hook. You can seldom save a trout unless you strike the very instant that he leaps. The swiftness with which a trout can dart from his hiding-place after a fly is truly astonishing; and we never see one perform this operation without feeling an indescribable thrill quivering through our frame.”—Charles Lanman.

“There is nothing grovelling in fly-fishing—nothing gross or demoralizing.”—Charles Hallock.

“Angling is a maist innocent, poetical, moral and religious amusement. Gin I saw a fisher gruppin creelfu’ after creelfu’ o’ trouts, and then flingin’ them a’ awa among the heather and the brackens on his way hame, I micht begin to suspee that the idiot was by nature rather a savage. But as for me, I send presents to my freens, and devour dizzens on dizzens every week in the family—maistly dune in the pan, wi’ plenty o’ fresh butter and roun’ meal—sae that prevents the possibility o’ cruelty in my fishin’, and in the fishin’ o’ a’ reasonable creatures.”—James Hogg.

WHY PETER WENT A-FISHING.

By W. C. Prime.

Never was night more pure, never was sea more winning; never were the hearts of men moved by deeper emotions than on that night and by that sea when Peter and John, and other of the disciples, were waiting for the Master.

Peter said, “I go a-fishing.” John and Thomas, and James and Nathanael, and the others, said, “We will go with you,” and they went.

Some commentators have supposed and taught that, when Peter said, “I go a-fishing,” he announced the intention of returning to the ways in which he had earned his daily bread from childhood; that his Master was gone, and he thought that nothing remained for him but the old, hard life of toil, and the sad labor of living.

But this seems scarcely credible, or consistent with the circumstances. The sorrow which had weighed down the disciples when gathered in Jerusalem on that darkest Sabbath day of all the Hebrew story, had given way to joy and exultation in the morning when the empty tomb revealed the hitherto hidden glory of the resurrection, joy which was ten-fold increased by are interview with the risen Lord, and confirmed by his direction, sending them into Galilee to await Him there. And thus it seems incredible that Peter and John—John, the beloved—could have been in any such gloom and despondency as to think of resuming their old employment at this time, when they were actually waiting for His coming, who had promised to meet them.

Probably they were on this particular evening weary with earnest expectancy, yet not satisfied; tired of waiting and longing, and looking up the hillside on the Jerusalem road for His appearance; and I have no doubt that, when this weariness became exhausting, Peter sought on the water something of the old excitement that he had known from boyhood, and that to all the group it seemed a fitting way in which to pass the long night before them, otherwise to be weary as well as sleepless.