154 TROUT FISHING 



he plays it? Perhaps he is challenging 

 me to throw the ball to a place where 

 he cannot find it ; perhaps he has some 

 method of reckoning time, and wishes to 

 show in what a brief space he can recover 

 the ball and restore it. One can hardly 

 doubt that in his part of the per- 

 formance there is something I do not 

 see, some consideration my ignorance of 

 which makes our game of ball as purpose- 

 less to me as the game of golf is by a 

 similar lacuna made to him. 



If that is not certain, it is possible ; 

 and the possibility will suffice for the 

 purpose at present in hand. It suggests 

 that many things in this world which are 

 so commonplace that they are usually 

 unheeded by men and women, and par- 

 ticularly ignored by those who seek com- 

 prehensive generalisations, may, far from 

 being purposeless accidents, be actually 

 vital parts in the scheme of creation. 

 Among these commonplace things, plea- 

 sures are conspicuous. For what do we 

 strive and slave ? There is, of course. 



