SOME FANCIES SOME FACTS 193 



optimist arriving at the stream side prepares 

 his rod, surveys the scene of action, and, having 

 selected the spot he is to fish, enters the stream 

 some distance below, and quietly proceeds to 

 his point of vantage. Every instinct alert, he 

 is careful to make no mistake, and his care and 

 deftness are at once rewarded. Continuing a 

 few yards, another fish is taken, and possibly a 

 bit farther on, still another. Then, blinded by 

 conceit, he falls into the pit he has dug for him- 

 self. He thinks he has at last the right medi- 

 cine, and unknowingly (and unmeaningly, bless 

 his heart) there steals over him a feeling akin to 

 contempt for the wary fish he is after. The next 

 pool is approached with a swagger that fills the 

 trout that inhabit it with consternation, and 

 drives all thought of feeding from them. Some 

 day it will occur to this angler that he has been 

 a bit overconfident, and he will try getting out 

 of the stream, going up a hundred yards through 

 the brush, and starting all over as at the be- 

 ginning; then he will come to a realisation of 

 the truth. (3) The pessimist, by analysing 

 cause number two, may overcome, to a certain 

 extent, the deep-rooted superstition that, be- 

 cause he gets a trout easily at the outset, he will 

 get no more throughout the day. His is a state 



