80 Dry-Fly Fishing. 



luck, sometimes profanely cursing it, is generally one 

 who expects to have everything his own way an 

 impossibility in this life ! Happily, swearing is no 

 longer the fashion, as it was with the young bloods 

 in our forefathers' time. It is now a sign of 

 vulgarity and the want of moral restraint. 



Luck has been denned as " nothing but the out- 

 ward appearance of careful and calculated reason- 

 ing." It is so to a great extent in dry-fly practice, 

 and that is why some men (I do for one) object to 

 the question so often put to anglers, " Have you had 

 any luck ? " for one is apt to think, and to pride 

 oneself upon it, that skill has brought success. 

 Nevertheless, circumstances do arise when " fortu- 

 nate " or " good fortune " mean almost the same as 

 the objectionable word, though not quite the 

 outcome of mere chance. 



Exaggeration : scrupulously avoid it in any form. 

 Anglers have a bad reputation for untruthfulness, 

 not to say for telling lies, but which (as a body of 

 men under the influence of an innocent recreation 

 and in close contact with the charms of Nature and 

 the elevation of mind they should, and in fact often 

 do, inspire), I venture to say, they do not deserve. 

 To tell a deliberate lie in ordinary matters would 

 cause a man to be shunned by his associates, and 

 yet what is the difference in a " fish story " often 

 listened to in a mixed company amid much mirth, 



