_Dripping Angler._ "You don't suppose this is a perspiration, do you?"] * * * * * [Illustration: THE GENTLE CRAFTSMAN (?).--_Irascible Angler_ (_who hasn't had a rise all day_). "There!"--(_Throwing his fly-book into the stream, with a malediction_)--"Take your choice!"] * * * * * [Illustration: UNLUCKY.--_American Cousin_ (_last day of season_). "What sport? 'Guess I've been foolin' around all day with a twenty-five-dollar pole, slinging fourteen-cent baits at the end of it, and haven't caught a darned fish!"] * * * * * [Illustration: "THERE'S MANY A SLIP," ETC.--Waggles saw a splendid three-pound trout feeding in a quiet place on the Thames one evening last week. Down he comes the next night, making sure of him! But some other people had seen him too!!] * * * * * [Illustration: _Contemplative Man_ (_in punt_). "I don't so much care about the sport, it's the delicious repose I enjoy so."] * * * * * [Illustration: MENACE _Little Angler_ (_to her refractory bait_). "Keep still, you tiresome little thing! If you don't leave off skriggling, I'll throw you away, and take another!"] * * * * * [Illustration: A BLANK DAY _Old Gent_ (_greeting friend_). "Hullo, Jorkins! 'Been fishing? What did you catch?" _Jorkins_ (_gloomily_). "Ha'-past six train home!"] * * * * * [Illustration: AN OBVIOUSLY UNKIND INQUIRY _Brown_ (_to Jones, who has, for the first time, been trying his hand at fishing from a boat_). "Well, old chap, what sort o' sport?"] * * * * * [Illustration: SEIZING HIS OPPORTUNITY _The Major_ (_on his way to try for the big trout, and pondering on his fly-book_). "Now I wonder what he'll take? What d'you say, Smithers, eh?" _Smithers_ (_pulling up with alacrity_). "Take, sir? Well, sir, thanky, sir, sup o' whisky, sir, for choice!"] * * * * * [Illustration: CONSCIENTIOUS FLATTERY.--_Boatman._ "I canna mind a finer fesh for its size!"] * * * * * [Illustration: WET AND DRY.--_Careful Wife._ "Are you very wet, dear?" _Ardent Angler_ (_turning up his flask_). "No, dry as a lime-kiln--haven't had a drop these two hours!"] * * * * * [Illustration: DRY-FLY ENTOMOLOGY.--(Scene--_The banks of a Hampshire stream in the grayling season_). _Angler_ (_the rise having abruptly ceased_). "I think they're taking a _siesta_, Thompson." _Keeper._ "I dessay they are, sir, but any other fly with a touch o' red in it would do as well."] * * * * *