WINTER TALKS ON SUMMER PASTIMES. 77 



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than an average sinner who, having a giant's strength in 

 that direction, persistently uses it like a giant. No 'prac- 

 tical joker' ever long retains the hearty respect of his friends, 

 nor their hearty friendship either. A persistent punster is 

 less offensive. He is only a bore; the other fellow is a nuis- 

 ance." 



"Talking of practical jokes, "you remember the 'good 

 thing' played on Mark Antony when he was fishing with 

 Cleopatra : 



Charmion" 'Twas merry when 



You wager'd on your angling; when your diver 

 Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he 

 With fervency drew up." 



"'Tony must have been in a sweet-tempered mood just 

 then to have received the joke complacently. I once knew 

 a miserly sort of a fellow who would almost literally sleep 

 on the brink of the best 'spring-hole' within a five miles' 

 circuit, in order to retain its monopoly. To punish him 

 for his unsportsmanlike behavior, one of the guides was 

 bribed to launch a hemlock bush upon the current every 

 two minutes, at a point just above the coveted spring-hole ; 

 and while the astonished angler went up stream to investi- 

 gate, another chap took possession and held it through the 

 day. When told of the joke, instead of enjoying it he was 

 very angry, and I doubt whether he had a hearty laugh in 

 a twelve-month." 



"The danger of practical jokes," I interposed, "is that 

 they are generally aimed at the most vulnerable point in the 

 victim's harness. For this reason, as in the case just cited, 

 they cut, because they are somehow felt to be deserved. A 

 proverbially thrifty chap would not feel half so much 

 offended by being presented with the empty shell of a 

 sucked egg as would a spendthrift who had 'wasted his sub- 

 stance in riotous living.' " 



"You remember the case of "our practical joker 



had begun to remark, when he was interrupted by the most 

 exemplary of our number, who said to him : 



"Now, Jeemes, my good fellow, I see what you are 



