114 EEMINISCENCES OP THE LEWS. 



pool ? It is asking too mucli of poor human 

 nature to stand this. No one more enjoys 

 walking by the side of any one fishing, if he 

 can fish, showing him honestly the good casts 

 and how to fish them, landing his fish, doing 

 everything, in short, for him, except giving him 

 my own particular pet fly — than I do. I can 

 do it for days together. But loafers, or the 

 proprietor's fi:'iends, coming as a matter of 

 right — few or far between as may be — is an- 

 other thing. There is pride and pleasure in 

 the one, the devil and all his imps in the other. 

 No proprietor should ever ask, no lessee ever 

 consent to, such a condition. I go further 

 still. No clean-bred gentleman should ever 

 take advantage of such a privilege, and fish 

 another man's water at that man's expense. I 

 would not, and our fi:-iend Fred, I know, would 

 not do it. 



There is yet another point. This reservation 

 contains within itself the fruitful germ of mis- 

 understandings, heart-burnings, and all manner 

 of strife and discord. I have known it work 

 most unpleasantly, and become the fons et origo 

 malorum that otherwise would never have 

 arisen. 



