FISHING
A man was telling some friends about a proposed fishing trip to a lake
in Colorado which he had in contemplation.
"Are there any trout out there?" asked one friend.
"Thousands of 'em," replied Mr. Wharry.
"Will they bite easily?" asked another friend.
"Will they?" said Mr. Wharry. "Why they're absolutely vicious. A man has
to hide behind a tree to bait a hook."
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"I got a bite--I got a bite!" sang out a tiny girl member of a fishing
party. But when an older brother hurriedly drew in the line there was
only a bare hook. "Where's the fish?" he asked. "He unbit and div," said
the child.
The late Justice Brewer was with a party of New York friends on a
fishing trip in the Adirondacks, and around the camp fire one evening
the talk naturally ran on big fish. When it came his turn the jurist
began, uncertain as to how he was going to come out:
"We were fishing one time on the Grand Banks for--er--for--"
"Whales," somebody suggested.
"No," said the Justice, "we were baiting with whales."
"Lo, Jim! Fishin'?"
"Naw; drowning worms."
We may say of angling as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries: "Doubtless
God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did"; and so
(if I might be judge), God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent
recreation than angling.--_Izaak Walton_.