124 The Angler's Secret 



I tell him that it is hunger that makes 

 him surly. "Living unnaturally, as you 

 do in the city, Doctor, has destroyed your 

 sense of appetite, and it has been so long 

 a time since you were really hungry that 

 you v'e forgotten what hunger is; you 

 can't recognize it when, by a few hours 

 of natural life, it returns to you, and you 

 very naturally call your ailment by an- 

 other name and attribute its origin to a 

 false cause. I '11 open some Little Necks 

 for you, and while you eat them I '11 

 broil you a sea bass." And I handed the 

 old man a cup of sherry. 



"Oh, I '11 have none of your hungry 

 yarn, nor any of your other yarns. I 

 guess I know a little more about myself 

 than you do," and the doctor looked real 

 angry. "I could n't eat in town, where I 

 have every luxury; I could n't sleep 

 there, where I have a decent bed and 

 decent roof over my head ; and from 

 what I see of this place I guess I '11 starve 

 outright or die of exposure here. I was a 



