The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-04

shadow behind your most hysterical eff
forts to shake it off. 1t haunts you
at night with dreams as persistent as
the buzzing of a fly in the morning,
demanding that you think on it some
more because you have to do it again
on the tomorrow. And after a night Of
dreams, again weary and hesitating,
you take your place on the moving
platform of the tread mill, almost
glad to shake the threat of the grind
with the thing itself
II you know anything. of this-and
who does not?-you had better
stretch. If you know base-hit from
a sacrifice, baseball is good way.
If you know how not to cross
fire your companion hunting is bet
ter. If you have no asset except an
imagination, fishing is your recourse.
That is the only way of stretching
that doesn't require some elementary
knowledge. Anybody can fish and the
simplest of imaginations can find tale
to tell about the day that will prove
more engrossing than any work ever
invented to spoil the soul of man.
Whether you are the nervous or the
sedate fisherman, it is an enhancing
pastime. It's glories are chiefly in the
future return, but they are eloquent
wages and they are delightful TO I'M
provise Happy is. he who can fish
without moving, his pole stuck in the
bank, a lazy cork floating In the rip
pies amid it's ring of darling mellow
bugs-the fellow stuck under the
crook of q willow moodily watching
his cork, listening to the ripple of the
water round a log, hopeless of fish
or almost hopeless-yet sleepily alert
for a bitei
Without for once admitting it, there
is after all the reflection: What are
fish, anyway" The detachment is the
thing. The very triviality of the
greatest possible return is the profit.
1t is to sit here amongst the creepy
things of the bank, 70 dig your heels
into the mud and Brush the ants out
of your face and feel the sun on the
back of your neck whichever way you
manipulate the shade-that is the
good! To know that the Office is far
away and that somebody else Is do
ing your work-or pretending to-and
that you, you are to go home and eat
a big supper and smoke your pipe on
the porch and go early to bed! "Fish!
why / reckon not, / wouldn't move
for all the fish in"
What is that" A tingie runs
through your body to your toes. The
fat cork with the mellow bug upon
it gives a curious bob and the ripple
circles away from it with all the mys-
terry of life itself. What denizen of
the deep is that below? Very care
fully you sit up straight, more care
fully. with the utmost strategy and
caution, you reach forward, STOPPING
over with tense and straining hand af-'
ter the end of the pole. You have it.
Just in time. The fat cork hobs once
ar, f,xrio Eyinl
down, down, down. You wait for
an age in an agony lest in waiting
long enough, you wait too long. You
can stand it no longer. You strike,
oh, the thrill of it. Something is
live down there. You have him! He
pulls and tugs. The line runs round
and round in ever decreasing circles
as you haul him up! How he pulls!
You feel him darling, this way and
mendous splashing on the surface and
you swing him, still striking with his
tail. into the bank.
A catfish! well" you reflect,
while you wipe the nervous sweat
from your brow, 'he pulled anyway"
But watch out lest you work too
long, till you get so you cannot
stretch at all. Then it is to lie still
and wait; and Waiting is worse than
working when you have it to do.
An old country doctor called to see
relative who had sent to consult
with him about a very peculiar
malady:
you know" said she, when
wake up in the morning and go to
stretch, have the most awful cramps.
The pain is dreadful. 1t seems al
most that / can't just stand it any
more. What do you suppose is the
matter? Is there anything that can
be done for it?'
The old doctor tugged refiectively
at his beard:
"Wa-al, Cousin Sally" he replied at
length, my advice to you is, jest don't
stretch
1t is better to stretch, it is impera-
tive to stop! The first is the quicker
remedy, the last does not rest: it
merely patches up. Go out and
stretch, whether your work will let
you or not. 1t is the safest way.
A high-strung woman said to me
once: Hear that grass-cutter! I al
ways think of examinations when /
hear the sound.
Yes" she explained cutting the
grass for commencement when / was
at school, and l was in the examina-
ton room, tired to death in an agony
to get through and afraid to go out.
Every time / Near that droning clat-
ter. / think of that day."
Can't you see the white, pinched
face of that girl sitting at her desk,
worked down, nervous, UNDERGONE
dent listening to the grass cutter on
the lawn?
Let us hope that before she ever
put on that simple white muslin dress
and read her essay on 'Woman's In
fiuence on the Great Minds Of His
tory" she stretched!
A Daily Thought.
(Henry Richard.)