Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/317

 stopped by a slight pressure of the angler's thumb, and the tempting lures settled upon the water as lightly as a couple of feathers.

"I never can learn to do that," said Joe, despondingly. "It requires altogether too much skill for my clumsy—Well, sir, you've got him as sure as the world."

The hook was fast to something, that was plain; but I thought at first that Uncle Joe had caught a snag or a lily-pad. There was a jerk that made me wonder, and in an instant more I was bent almost half double; but with all the strain that was brought to bear upon me, the thing at the other end of the line, whatever it was, did not give an inch. On the contrary, it started and ran off toward the middle of the spring hole; and then I began to realize that I was doing battle with a trout of the largest size. Now was the time to show my master that he had been much mistaken in me.

I need not stop to go into the particulars of the fight, for every boy who has caught a heavy trout on a light rod will know just what happened; and besides, to be frank with you, I don't remember much about it. Neither does