AND FLIES 35 



mongery, and fancy goods combined 

 over which the wizened, bespectacled 

 vendor of "local flies" presides. With 

 the patience peculiar to our kind we 

 suffer the old man to discourse at length 

 on his antique favourites, which, one by 

 one, are tediously disentangled from a 

 mass of others reposing in a drawer or 

 portmanteau-like wallet of great age. 

 There is a ready history attached to each 

 pattern. Each one has its specified area 

 of renown over which it holds undis- 

 puted sway. Each one has some stirring 

 anecdote at its back, some special adapt- 

 ability to the moods of the changeful 

 elements to recommend it. And as we 

 duck our heads under the tin fish which 

 dangles over the cobbled pavement by 

 way of advertisement, we have a sneak- 

 ing regard for what we have heard, and 

 determine to give some of the purchases 

 a trial. The vision of one such " tackle- 

 maker," owl-faced, dilapidated, almost 



