70 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



may infer, but they cannot divulge : inferences are 

 not truth. 



May. Hold, Harry, and prate within limit. Wilt 

 thou strangle us at feast-time with thy dry logic 

 and dusty philosophy ? Is't not better, think you, 

 to make a book on't, which the dull may read at 

 pleasure, than force it adown our throats against all 

 inclination? But now another song; I love thy 

 snatches marvellously; they reach to my inner man, 

 and stir the pith of my nature. 



Hackle. Strike up thyself, Bill come to light 

 with a love-lilt. 



May. I, Master Hackle! warble forsooth! 

 Heard you Doctor Swiveltop opining concerning 

 me? 



Swivel. Spilt words, Bill; we revoke them with 

 good-will. Truly, May-fly, thou art the ablest of 

 able performers, albeit, like other great men, 

 sprinkled with conceit of thyself. Nay, man, I 

 miscalled thee not, save with the intent of reducing 

 thy vanity. ' Tis a monster thou should'st put in 

 irons, else the fingers of it will tighten around thy 

 throat with the clutch of a hyena. But thou canst 

 sing, Bill thou canst play upon thy windpipe, and 

 knowest it to boot. Be not backward, or sham 

 modesty, like a school-girl; start into metres, as 

 the bards of Fingal did ; throw out a bravura from 

 the hollow of thy lungs, or be plaintive and exceed- 

 ing tender, as " a love-sick pigeon I" 



May. You distress me, Doctor, beyond measure. 



