OF THE BEST ANGLER 47 



of tea. Bananas ! while Chavender gurgles with 

 tea. Oh ! I detest favouritism. 



1 wonder what the fellow's nerves are like. 

 While he sits there drinking I could cheerfully 

 see him opened up by the medical men who would 

 tell me. "If this much stimulant," I ask myself, 

 "only serves to bedew the eyelids of Chavender 

 with the balmiest of sleep, what would happen 

 were he deprived of it ? It is clear that he would 

 never wake up at all. And then his companion- 

 ship would be lost to us. So I comfort myself 

 for the partiality of the tea-dispenser. 



I have said that Chavender always catches fish 

 in this river. He employs honourable methods. 

 He is, therefore, a good fisherman. This conclu- 

 sion is open to objection, as thus. It is not certain 

 that a man may not be a good fisherman and yet 

 catch few fish. A good fisherman is one who 

 fishes well. Results have nothing to do with it. 



I reply that results have everything to do with 

 it. A man who fishes well without catching fish 

 is a contradiction in terms. Mechanical skill in 

 the casting of flies may be acquired on a water 

 that is quite empty of fishes. Similarly, a man 

 may learn by heart all the practical hints of all 

 the anglers who have ever written until there is 

 nothing he cannot tell you about barbel-bait and 

 the respective merits of gorge and snap- tackle for 



