84 THE SALMON FISHEE. 



convenient for the clip of your exultant and admir- 

 ing gaffer. Pray tell me, good indulgent reader, 

 how the self-sufficient author of the Yade Mecum is 

 to instruct you to do all this ? And this masterly 

 rough work is not accomplished single-handed, by a 

 good deal. Your attendant is an almost indispen- 

 sable factor. He must be mentor as well as assist- 

 ant. In fact, he ought to be as intelligent and ex- 

 perienced as his master. He is not there merely to 

 basket the fish and tote them. He should have 

 sense when to advise his companion, and when to 

 refrain, and above all things he should be cool and 

 self-possessed. He is able to perceive from lateral 

 points of observation what the man with the rod 

 cannot see, and thus often to anticipate the inten- 

 tions of the fish and head them off. He is to clear 

 away bushes which interpose, and rocks which im- 

 pede the passage along the bank ; he is to take the 

 rod betimes into his own hands while the angler 

 gains a better foothold or more advantageous posi- 

 tion, to steady him by the shoulders in difficult 

 places, to help him by the hand and steer him, as a 

 policeman guides a lady or a cripple through the in- 



