’T is better to have fought and lost,
Than never to have fought at all.
On describing my battle to an old friend, who is himself no fisherman, but a great sportsman, he replied by quoting from a writer, whose name he did not know, the following lines, which I had never heard before and the authorship of which was at that time unknown to my friend also:
Upon the river’s bank serene
A fisher sat where all was green
And looked it.
He saw when light was growing dim
The fish or else the fish saw him
And hooked it.
He took with high erected comb