CHEAP AND NASTY. 479 



as I find. But, if the hooks and gut be good, and the 

 flies be well tied, they cannot be had for the money, so as 

 to leave the tackle-maker who sells them a fair profit, 

 unless he stole them.' 

 'Well, we shall see.' 



Three or four days after I walked into my friend's house. 

 He was out. I went into his sanctum, where his rod hung 

 always ready for action. On one of the nails below it, hung 

 a collar of gut, and the fly showed that it had been used 

 but an hour or so before. I recognised the fly as one of 

 the dozen my friend had bought at Snooks's, and, taking 

 it in my hand, I found the point and barb entirely gone, 

 the hook having broken at the bend. Just as I made the 

 discovery my friend entered. I turned to him with the 

 fly in my hand, and, holding it out, I uttered but one 

 word, and that word was Snooks.' My friend was a little 

 irate and a little confused. He had had hold of a good 

 fish in the mill-tail, a three-pounder ; the fish gave a 

 jump, and somehow there was too much of a strain, or 

 something ; but the hook broke, and the fish, of course 

 was ' spoilt ' for a month to come. It was a fine morning 

 for fishing, so, taking down his rod, we strolled together 

 down the stream. He rigged up another ' Snooks ' in the 

 meantime, and, coming to a good cast under some trees, 

 he rose and hooked a handsome two-pounder. The fish 

 gave one flounder on the top, and he was away. We 

 looked for the cause, and, lo ! the hook was the counter- 

 part of the one I had seen hanging on the nail : the barb 

 and point were gone at the bend. 



' Snooks ! ' again quoth I, emphatically. 



' Oh ! be hanged with your " Snooks ; " as if nobody 

 else's hooks ever broke. I held him too hard.' 



' Too hard for Snooks,' said I. 



Sulkily enough he mounted another of the infallibles, 

 as we walked up towards the mill-tail, where all was fair 



