AND FLIES 41 



Breathes there an angler with " soul so 

 dead" who would part with his Ronald 

 even though he were offered Izaak Wal- 

 ton in his stead ? To suffer that whole- 

 some connection between the trout fish- 

 er's sport and entomology to be broken 

 would be to throw bankruptcy in the 

 face of a well-tried friend. The angler 

 would be scorning his very birthright in 

 feigning indifference to the May-fly's 

 story or to the life of that terrible crea- 

 ture which at one of the stages in its un- 

 enviable career is well called Creeper. 

 And the fly-fisher will yield to none in 

 the beauty and refinement of his tackle. 

 With him there is no messy baiting of 

 hooks, no impaling of luckless worms, 

 no pickling of happy minnows. For my 

 part, although I am not squeamish nor 

 addicted to crying cruelty, I confess I do 

 not like these things. There is some- 

 thing in the wriggle of the worm that 

 repels. 



