122 TROUT FISHING 



grows so does it seem more likely that both parties 

 to a dispute have a good deal of justification for 

 their opinion, and that the discreet third party 

 by keeping his ears open and his mouth shut may 

 learn not a little that will be to his advantage. It 

 is perhaps indicative of a grovelling spirit not to 

 plunge into any fray that is going on, but it keeps 

 a man out of difficult situations, and enables him 

 to turn a calculating eye on the profits of the affair. 

 Take, for instance, that " upstream or down " 

 question. Suppose you have a skilled exponent 

 of either method arguing on each side. By listening 

 quietly to their respective statements you will 

 probably pick up a good many wrinkles as to the 

 conditions in which the two methods do best, and 

 also as to the ways in which each man makes his 

 own method effective. There was a time — I will 

 admit it — when I was one of the upstream disciples, 

 and so convinced that if I saw a man fishing down- 

 stream I immediately set him down in my own 

 mind as evidently a poor performer. But that was 

 a long time ago, and since then I have angled in 

 many waters, talked with and watched many anglers, 

 and entirely lost my old attitude towards the down- 

 stream plan. At the same time, I have not lost 

 my affection for upstream work, so I consider 

 myself greatly the gainer. If one method does not 

 succeed, to have an alternative method which may 



