第25章

"You seem a stranger in this part of the country, sir," said I; "but unless I am mistaken you are no stranger to me.Did you not use to go a-fishing in the New River, with honest Nat.and R.Roe, many years ago? And did they not call you Izaak Walton?"His eyes smiled pleasantly at me and a little curve of merriment played around his lips."It is a secret which I thought not to have been discovered here," he said; "but since you have lit upon it, Iwill not deny it."

Now how it came to pass that I was not astonished nor dismayed at this, I cannot explain.But so it was; and the only feeling of which I was conscious was a strong desire to detain this visitor as long as possible, and have some talk with him.So I grasped at the only expedient that flashed into my mind.

"Well, then, sir," I said, "you are most heartily welcome, and Itrust you will not despise the only hospitality I have to offer.If you will sit down here among these birch trees in Contentment Corner, I will give you half of a fisherman's luncheon, and will cook your char for you on a board before an open wood-fire, if you are not in a hurry.Though I belong to a nation which is reported to be curious, I will promise to trouble you with no inquisitive questions; and if you will but talk to me at your will, you shall find me a ready listener."So we made ourselves comfortable on the shady bank, and while Ibusied myself in splitting the fish and pinning it open on a bit of board that I had found in a pile of driftwood, and setting it up before the fire to broil, my new companion entertained me with the sweetest and friendliest talk that I had ever heard.

"To speak without offence, sir," he began, "there was a word in your discourse a moment ago that seemed strange to me.You spoke of being 'in a hurry'; and that is an expression which is unfamiliar to my ears; but if it mean the same as being in haste, then I must tell you that this is a thing which, in my judgment, honest anglers should learn to forget, and have no dealings with it.To be in haste is to be in anxiety and distress of mind; it is to mistrust Providence, and to doubt that the issue of all events is in wiser hands than ours; it is to disturb the course of nature, and put overmuch confidence in the importance of our own endeavours.

"For how much of the evil that is in the world cometh from this plaguy habit of being in haste! The haste to get riches, the haste to climb upon some pinnacle of worldly renown, the haste to resolve mysteries--from these various kinds of haste are begotten no small part of the miseries and afflictions whereby the children of men are tormented: such as quarrels and strifes among those who would over-reach one another in business; envyings and jealousies among those who would outshine one another in rich apparel and costly equipage;bloody rebellions and cruel wars among those who would obtain power over their fellow-men; cloudy disputations and bitter controversies among those who would fain leave no room for modest ignorance and lowly faith among the secrets of religion; and by all these miseries of haste the heart grows weary, and is made weak and dull, or else hard and angry, while it dwelleth in the midst of them.

"But let me tell you that an angler's occupation is a good cure for these evils, if for no other reason, because it gently dissuadeth us from haste and leadeth us away from feverish anxieties into those ways which are pleasantness and those paths which are peace.For an angler cannot force his fortune by eagerness, nor better it by discontent.He must wait upon the weather, and the height of the water, and the hunger of the fish, and many other accidents of which he has no control.If he would angle well, he must not be in haste.

And if he be in haste, he will do well to unlearn it by angling, for I think there is no surer method.

"This fair tree that shadows us from the sun hath grown many years in its place without more unhappiness than the loss of its leaves in winter, which the succeeding season doth generously repair; and shall we be less contented in the place where God hath planted us?

or shall there go less time to the making of a man than to the growth of a tree? This stream floweth wimpling and laughing down to the great sea which it knoweth not; yet it doth not fret because the future is hidden; and doubtless it were wise in us to accept the mysteries of life as cheerfully and go forward with a merry heart, considering that we know enough to make us happy and keep us honest for to-day.A man should be well content if he can see so far ahead of him as the next bend in the stream.What lies beyond, let him trust in the hand of God.