"Look!" said Teddy; "wherever you see one of those big smiles on the
water, I believe there's a fish!"
Fortunately the rod was at hand. Graygown and Teddy managed the
boat and the landing-net with consummate skill. We landed no less
than a dozen beautiful fish at that most unlikely hour and then
solemnly shook hands all around.
There is a peculiar pleasure in doing a thing like this, catching
trout in a place where nobody thinks of looking for them, and at an
hour when everybody believes they cannot be caught. It is more fun
to take one good fish out of an old, fished-out stream, near at hand
to the village, than to fill a basket from some far-famed and well-
stocked water. It is the unexpected touch that tickles our sense of
pleasure. While life lasts, we are always hoping for it and
expecting it. There is no country so civilized, no existence so
humdrum, that there is not room enough in it somewhere for a lazy,
idle brook, an encourager of indolence, with hope of happy
surprises.
THE OPEN FIRE
"It is a vulgar notion that a fire is only for heat. A chief value
of it is, however, to look at. And it is never twice the same."--
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER: Backlog Studies.
I
LIGHTING UP
Man is the animal that has made friends with the fire.
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