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Page:Caine - An Angler at Large (1911).djvu/38

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20
AN ANGLER AT LARGE

net a 2½ pounder, after one rush of six yards and three minutes of holding on. What though, conscience-stricken, we turned him in again? We had him. Let us have him again. Let us turn him in once more, and good luck go with him, slowly, under the willow roots.

Or would we have a few fat brace with the sedge? The feast is spread. We have only to name our dish. Our good friend will see that we are provided. He can meet our every taste. For an epicurean meal of choice morsels, for a great lusty gourmandising, he has the ingredients ready to hand, and his kindly presence will add savour to every mouthful.

Seasons come, perhaps, when we cannot actually meet. Our occasions take us elsewhere. But we are not utterly separated from the river. At any moment we have only to shut our eyes to be on his banks, catching fish. And then our circumstances smile. We are reunited. And as we cross the lowest meadow to where, deep and calm under the protecting copse, our friend awaits us by the boundary fence (there is surely a great trout under the thorn bush), we catch a kindly wink from him far up where he turns westward, and our heart beats its answer to his welcome.