300 SALMON FISHING 



but she showed no more respect for chemistry than 

 she had shown for Shakespeare. " Things," she 

 remarked, " always taste best when they are pretty 

 to look at, and a little brightening improves the 

 colour of claret. I've tried it often. There are sea- 

 lice on my three-pounder. That's good ! It must 

 have come up with last night's tide." 



"Yes; and what a joy it must have been to 

 run up this wooded river in the moonbeams ! 

 And to think of it now its next stage the 

 cooking-range ! " 



"That's a wrong tack," said Miss Winsome. 

 "Fine words from a man who's browsing on the 

 wing of a chicken ! I can't join in these emotions 

 about animals. If I did I should have nothing to 

 eat. Besides, it seems to be crooked thinking. 

 Have you ever noticed that people who rejoice in 

 their love of cats and dogs and birds are always 

 those who can't get on with human beings ? " 



I admitted that they were tartars as a rule. 



"I am sorry to see that Mr. Andrew Lang has 

 taken to this sort of thing. He says that worm- 

 fishing should be prohibited everywhere, because it's 

 not fair to the worm. Yet I've always understood 

 he's a good man. Of course, it may be a mere slip 

 of judgment with him, from his having to think so 

 much an error of the head rather than of the heart. 

 Men of letters sometimes get hold of wrong ideas in 

 solitude, and then put them into print. Perhaps 

 that comes of their being so much in the study by 

 themselves." 



