The custom of drawing lots every night for the water that
each member was to angle over the next day, seemed to be especially
designed to fit the situation. Mrs. De Peyster could fish her own
pool and her husband's too. The result of that year's fishing was
something phenomenal. She had a score that made a paragraph in the
newspapers and called out editorial comment. One editor was so
inadequate to the situation as to entitle the article in which he
described her triumph "The Equivalence of Woman." It was well-
meant, but she was not at all pleased with it.
She was now not merely an angler, but a "record" angler of the most
virulent type. Wherever they went, she wanted, and she got, the
pick of the water. She seemed to be equally at home on all kinds of
streams, large and small. She would pursue the little mountain-
brook trout in the early spring, and the Labrador salmon in July,
and the huge speckled trout of the northern lakes in September, with
the same avidity and resolution. All that she cared for was to get
the best and the most of the fishing at each place where she angled.
This she always did.
And Beekman,--well, for him there were no more long separations from
the partner of his life while he went off to fish some favourite
stream. There were no more home-comings after a good day's sport to
find her clad in cool and dainty raiment on the verandah, ready to
welcome him with friendly badinage.
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