, despising none of them, and using all of them for his soul's good
and for the joy of his fellows. If he be, so to speak, but a
worm-fisherman,--a follower of humble occupations, and pledged to
unromantic duties,--let him still thrill with the pleasures of the true
sportsman. To make the most of dull hours, to make the best of dull
people, to like a poor jest better than none, to wear the threadbare
coat like a gentleman, to be outvoted with a smile, to hitch your wagon
to the old horse if no star is handy,--this is the wholesome philosophy
taught by fishing with a worm. The fun of it depends upon the heart.
There may be as much zest in saving as in spending, in working for
small wages as for great, in avoiding the snapshots of publicity as in
being invariably first "among those present." But a man should be
honest. If he catches most of his fish with a worm, secures the larger
portion of his success by commonplace industry, let him glory in it,
for this, too, is part of the great game. Yet he ought not in that case
to pose as a fly-fisherman only,--to carry himself as one aware of the
immortalizing camera,--to pretend that life is easy, if one but knows
how to drop a fly into the right ripple. For life is not easy, after
all is said. It is a long brook to fish, and it needs a stout heart and
a wise patience. All the flies there are in the book, and all the bait
that can be carried in the box, are likely to be needed ere the day is
over. But, like the Psalmist's "river of God," this brook is "full of
water," and there is plenty of good fishing to be had in it if one is
neither afraid nor ashamed of fishing sometimes with a worm.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FISHING WITH A WORM***

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