He refitted my bait, and, putting the pole again in my hands, told me to try my luck once more.
"But remember, boy," he said, with his shrewd smile, "never brag of catching a fish until he is on dry ground.

I've seen older folks doing that in more ways than one, and so making fools of themselves.

It 's no use to boast of anything until it 's done, nor then either, for it speaks for itself." How often since I have been reminded of the fish that I did not catch! When I hear people boasting of a work as yet undone, and trying to anticipate the credit which belongs only to actual achievement, I call to mind that scene by the brookside, and the wise caution of my uncle in that particular instance takes the form of a proverb of universal application: "Never brag of your fish before you catch him." YANKEE GYPSIES.
"Here's to budgets, packs, and wallets; Here's to all the wandering train." BURNS.
I CONFESS it, I am keenly sensitive to "skyey influences." I profess no indifference to the movements of that capricious old gentleman known as the clerk of the weather.

I cannot conceal my interest in the behavior of that patriarchal bird whose wooden similitude gyrates on the church spire.

Winter proper is well enough.