78 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



may infer, but they cannot divulge : inferences are 

 not truth 



May. Hold, Harry, and prate within limit. Wilt 

 thou strangle us at feast-time with thy dry logic and 

 dusty philosophy ? Is't not better, think you, to 

 make a book on't, which the dull may read at pleasure, 

 than force it adown our throats against all inclination? 

 But now another song ; I love thy snatches marvel- 

 lously ; they reach to my inner man, and stir the pith 

 of my nature. 



Hackle. Strike up thyself, Bill come to light with 

 a love-lilt. 



May. I, Master Hackle ! warble forsooth ! Heard 

 you Doctor Swiveltop opining concerning me ? 



Swivel. Spilt words, Bill ; we revoke them with 

 good-will. Truly, May-fly, thou art the ablest of 

 able performers, albeit, like other great men, sprinkled 

 with conceit of thyself. Nay, man, I miscalled thee 

 not, save with the intent of reducing thy vanity. 

 'Tis a monster thou should'st put in irons, else 

 the fingers of it will tighten around thy throat 

 with the clutch of a hyena. But thou canst sing, 

 Bill thou canst play upon thy windpipe, and knowest 

 it to boot. Be not backward, or sham modesty, like 

 a school-girl ; start into metres, as the bards of 

 Fingal did ; throw out a bravura from the hollow of 

 thy lungs, or be plaintive and exceeding tender, as 

 " a love-sick pigeon ! " 



May. You distress me, Doctor, beyond measure. 



