had made an ass of himself by not "striking" soon enough. Of
course the whole thing was so long ago that both of them could look
back on it without any bitterness or ill nature. In fact it amused them.
Kernin said it was the most laughable thing he ever saw in his life to
see poor old Jack--that's Morse's name--shoving away with the landing
net wrong side up. And Morse said he'd never forget seeing poor old
Kernin yanking his line first this way and then that and not knowing
where to try to haul it. It made him laugh to look back at it.

They might have gone on laughing for quite a time, but Charlie Jones
interrupted by saying that in his opinion a landing net is a piece of
darned foolishness. Here Popley agrees with him. Kernin objects that if
you don't use a net you'll lose your fish at the side of the boat. Jones
says no: give him a hook well through the fish and a stout line in his
hand and that fish has _got_ to come in. Popley says so too. He says let
him have his hook fast through the fish's head with a short stout line,
and put him (Popley) at the other end of that line and that fish will
come in. It's _got_ to. Otherwise Popley will know why. That's the
alternative. Either the fish must come in or Popley must know why.
There's no escape from the logic of it.

But perhaps some of my readers have heard the thing discussed before.

So, as I say, we decided to go the next morning and to make an early
start. All of the boys were at one about that. When I say "boys," I use
the word, as it is used in fishing, to mean people from say forty-five
to sixty-five. There is something about fishing that keeps men young. If
a fellow gets out for a good morning's fishing, forgetting all business
worries, once in a while--say, once in ten years--it keeps him fresh.

We agreed to go in a launch, a large launch--to be exact, the largest
in the town. We could have gone in row boats, but a row boat is a poor
thing to fish from. Kernin said that in a row boat it is impossible
properly to "_play_" your fish. The side of the boat is so low that
the fish is apt to leap over the side into the boat when half "played."
Popley said that there is no comfort in a row boat. In a launch a man
can reach out his feet and take it easy. Charlie Jones said that in a
launch a man could rest his back against something, and Morse said that
in a launch a man could rest his neck. Young inexperienced boys, in the
small sense of the word, never think of