People often promise that they will be good, but they must have an honest desire to be so, and must seek for help from whence alone they can obtain it, in order to enable them to keep their promise. Norman had never even tried to be good, but had always followed his own inclinations, regardless of the pain or annoyance he inflicted on even those who were most kind to him. He could appear very amiable when he was pleased, and had everything his own way, but that is not sufficient. A person should be amiable when opposed, and even when hardly treated should return good for evil.
He sat in the boat talking away very pleasantly to Mr Maclean, who began to think that he was a much nicer boy than he had supposed, and felt very glad that he had brought him out with him that evening.
The laird rowed on for some distance, till he came to the spot where he proposed fishing. He then put his rod together, and told Norman to watch what he did, that he might imitate him as soon as he had a rod of his own.
“I must get a nice light one which you can handle properly,” observed the laird kindly.
“Oh, but I think I could hold yours, it does not seem very heavy,” said Norman.
“You might hold it upright, but you could not move it about as I do, and certainly you could not throw a fly with it,” answered Mr Maclean. “However, I like to see a boy try to do a thing. It is only by trying that a person can succeed. But trying alone will not do, a person must learn his alphabet before he can read; unless he did so, he might try very hard to read, and would not succeed. In the same way you must learn the a, b, c of every handicraft, and art, and branch of knowledge, before you can hope to understand or accomplish the work. The a, b, c of fly-fishing is to handle your rod and line, and I must see you do that well, before I let you use a hook, with which you would otherwise only injure yourself or any one else in the boat.”
“But I should feel so foolish throwing a line backwards and forwards over the water,” answered Norman, “I should not like that.”
“You would be much more foolish throwing it backwards and forwards and not catching anything,” remarked the laird. “Will you follow my advice or not? I want your answer.”
“I will do as you wish me,” said Norman, after some hesitation.
“Then I will teach you how to become a fly-fisher, and perhaps another year when you pay me a visit, you will be able to catch as many fish as I am likely to do this evening.”