CLEAR WATERS 



I 

 THE MICROBE 



WHAT is it and whence comes it ? 

 A different insect I think from that 

 which sends the young idea to horse or gun, 

 to bat or ball, constantly as both are found in the same 

 small body. I have myself had most of these other 

 complaints as violently as is common. Childhood 

 and youth are by instinct gregarious. But this angling 

 microbe sends even gregarious youth away into soli- 

 tudes, where there is no company but his own, no 

 shouting, no competition, no applause, no glory. If 

 it were the unsociable, the studious, the delicate who 

 usually fell a victim there would be nothing in it 

 But as a matter of fact this is not very often the case. 

 It is much more frequently the other sort who in the 

 mysterious magnetism of the stream find a something 

 that is not measured to any extent worth mentioning 

 by success, rivalry, or applause, but nevertheless holds 

 them tight. There are thousands of well-to-do men 

 in this country who are neither good performers, nor 

 really care much about it, yet carry a gun regularly. 

 It is one of the correct things to do, and, what is more, 

 fits in with or sometimes assists their social life, and is 

 A I 



