SPEAKING GENERALLY 25 



ignorance where to lay the blame. In his heart of 

 hearts he knows right well that he forgot to test 

 that knot tied hurriedly at starting, or that he 

 used yesterday's hook, of which he saw the gut 

 was frayed when he unhooked the last fish. In 

 other cases, he knows that no part of his tackle 

 was at fault, but that his own manner of fishing 

 brought about the parting of the ways. Too 

 great a strain, or too little ; too prolonged a fight, 

 or too much a hurry to end it ; too much or too 

 little confidence in his tackle ; such, according 

 to circumstances, are the explanation. Failure 

 in shooting does not convey the same morals. A 

 miss is as good as a mile, and little good comes as 

 a rule of analysing the cause. You do not, when- 

 ever you miss a bird, examine your gun or your 

 cartridge. If you did so, your host would not 

 unreasonably conclude that you were suffering 

 from sunstroke. Failure to hit the birds may be 

 a matter of temperament (as it is with a man I 

 have shot with as long as I can remember shooting 

 at all) or of abnormal condition. I assume that 

 the gun fits, though you occasionally see men out 

 with guns that fit them about as well as their wife's 

 boots would. When a man misses bird after bird 

 he will sometimes tell everyone that he was 

 carousing the night before, and it is then long odds 

 that he is a teetotaller and was abed by ten. In 

 fishing no such excuses serve, or are indeed wanted. 



