Oh, sir! doubt not but that Angling is
an art. Is it not an art to deceive a Trout with an artificial
fly?--a Trout that is more sharp-sighted than any Hawk you
have named, and more watchful and timorous than your
high-mettled Merlin is bold. And yet I doubt not to catch a
brace or two to-morrow for a friend's breakfast."
--_The Complete Angler._

John Hardy had lived with his mother at Hardy Place. His father had
died when he was six years of age, and there was consequently a long
minority of fifteen years. The greatest influence in John Hardy's life
was a trout stream that ran winding through an English landscape for
four miles in the Hardys' property. John Hardy fished it as a
schoolboy, and it was the greatest triumph he experienced as a lad, to
catch more trout in it with a fly than the numerous fly-fishers to
whom Mrs. Hardy's kindness gave permission. When college days came,
John Hardy, ever intent on fishing, went to Norway in the vacation
with the checkered result of getting an occasional salmon, and in the
smaller streams on the fjelds a quantity of small trout. The grand
scenery in the fjords, and the kindly nature of the people, led John
Hardy to more remote districts, where sport was better, the fare and
quarters worse, but some acquisition of Scandinavian language a
necessity.

Thus John Hardy not only gradually acquired a knowledge of many
dialects in Scandinavia, but the ability to read and understand the
simpler books in the language. He travelled and fished through Norway
and Sweden, and by degrees learnt, from the necessity of speaking it,
more and more of the Danish language, the language of Scandinavia, as
English relatively is to broad Scotch. This naturally led to his going
to Denmark, and his travelling through Jutland and the Danish islands.
In Jutland he accidentally fished in a West Jutland river, and to his
surprise found the difficult but good fishing that his heart longed
for.

John Hardy returned home, and was at Hardy Place with his mother the
whole winter, and then, as April came round with the fishing season,
John became restless, and told his mother of his Danish fishing
experiences, and left for Copenhagen. His mother said, "Write me once
a week, John, and bring me home a Scandinavian princess for your
wife." John Hardy promised to write, but said he thought Scandinavian
princesses did not rise to a fly. His mother's face grew grave, and
she said, "You s