INTRODUCTORY 33 



Heaven helps those that help themselves I know, 

 but I am upheld by a forlorn hope that it occasionally 

 helps the helpless. Like Mr. Lang, I am a duffer, but 

 unlike him I am a discontented duffer. I am not 

 resigned ; on the contrary, I am ever striving to 

 escape the bonds within which nature has confined 

 me, and find it hard to accept the inevitable failure of 

 my efforts. Mr. Lang neglects to fasten the various 

 pieces of his rod ; so do I. I resemble him, too, in 

 the frequency with which I smash my tops. But I am 

 capable of a feat he does not seem to have achieved ; 

 I can lay my rod on the ground beside me and, 

 immediately forgetting it, place a heavy foot across its 

 middle joint. He is always being hung up ; if there 

 be within reach anything to which my flies can form 

 an attachment, it is discovered with fatal certainty. 

 To the lips of a trout alone do they show a consistent 

 aversion. Since I rarely employ the lure I never 

 look as if a " shoal of fierce minnows had attacked 

 me," but I invariably return from the water bristling 

 with flies. 



Should I, by accident, hook a fish of size, the 

 paralysis of terror overcomes me. With heart in 

 moulh, and every limb a-tremble, I stand helplessly 



