I AM called "Old Durability"; but for fear my name may prove misleading,and cause those of my readers who are not acquainted with me to fallinto the error of supposing that I am a very aged article, I desire tosay, at the outset, that I am only four years old, and that I have beenin active service just sixteen months. During that time I have seen aworld of excitement and adventure, and have performed some exploits ofwhich any fly-rod might be justly proud. I have hooked, at one cast, andsuccessfully landed, two black bass, weighing together eight and aquarter pounds; I have so often been dumped in the cold waters ofmountain lakes and streams that it is a wonder my ferrules were notrusted out long ago; I have been dragged about among snags andlily-pads, by enraged trout, pickerel and bass; I have been stolen frommy lawful owner, been kept a prisoner by boys and tramps who eithercould not or would not take care of me, and one of my joints has beenbroken. Of course, I was skillfully patched up, but, like the man whosearm has been fractured, I am not quite as good as I used to be, and amreluctant to exert all my strength for fear that I shall break again inthe same place. I can't throw a fly as far as I could when I took myfinest string of trout in front of the "sportsmen's home" at IndianLake, and when I am called upon to make the attempt, my ferrules groanand creak as if they were about to give away and let me fall to pieces.For this my master laid me up in ordinary (that is what sailors say of awar vessel when she goes out of commission, and is laid up in port toremain idle there until her services are needed again), saying, as hedid so, that my days of usefulness were over, but that he would keep mefor the good I had done.