A PECK OF TROUBLES 249 



a fisherman may succumb to a sudden longing of 

 this kind. Well do I remember an incident which 

 occurred in my own youth, and in the contem- 

 poraneous youth of a now distinguished surgeon. 

 We each had a float, and we were both overcome 

 by the ballistic impulse at the same moment. Un- 

 happily, we also went armed in those days, and the 

 subsequent duel between air-gun and catapult 

 was a sad affair. I can still feel the shrewd smart 

 of a marble which smites the calf of a stockinged 

 leg, and I am sometimes reminded that the slug 

 from an air-gun may inflict pain even less endurable. 

 Let me now draw a veil over a scene of carnage. 



Grown persons, I am glad to think, do not throw 

 stones at anglers very much, except in out-of-the- 

 way places. In this respect manners must have 

 mended somewhat. In his Fishing Catechism 

 Colonel Meysey Thompson mentions an old rule in 

 the code of a certain fishing club, which ran : " Any 

 one throwing stones at another's line will be severely 

 dealt with by the committee." I am glad to think 

 that such a rule is no longer wanted as between 

 angler and angler. As between Public and angler, 

 I don't think it is much wanted either, which is 

 fortunate, because there would not seem to be much 

 remedy for us save in dignified retreat or impetuous 

 battle. And usually the Public is on the other side 

 of the river when it does throw stones, so, unless 



