148 THE ANGLER'S GUIDE. 



If Mr. Bigings had left off drinking too much 

 beer, and Mr. Stickings had left off drinking 

 too much tea, they would have been good 

 friends immediately. He was a ranter, too, 

 and Mr. Bigings did not like that ; and how 

 could it be expected he would, when he 

 belonged to a church, and obtained his living 

 by it, where no such thing as ranting is 

 allowed. Ranting, indeed ! why, the priests 

 themselves, generally speaking, only mutter 

 what they say in Latin. Ranting ! Just 

 imagine half-a-dozen ranters, with flaming 

 zeal and lusty lungs, in the middle of a 

 Roman Catholic chapel ! why, they'd terrify 

 the whole congregation, and all the priests 

 into the bargain, and not unlikely send some 

 of the maidenly nuns into hysterics. 



But these objections to Mr. Stickings, and 

 many others, Mr. Bigings waived, for, as he 

 told his wife, "when you come to give it a 

 thought in a reasonable manner, why should 

 people be so full of prejudice one against 

 the other, about things which were, after all, 

 of little or no consequence to them?" Why 

 could not next-door neighbours stand by the 

 side of a river and pull out jacks and pikes in 

 company with one another without quarrelling 



