EPISODES 209 



the houses were, we fortunately found one empty. It was 

 a log cabin, not a log house ; but as better could not be 

 had, we were pleased. Well, then, we were located. 

 The country around was thinly peopled, and all purchas- 

 able provisions rather scarce; but our neighbors were 

 friendly, and we had brought with us flour and bacon- 

 hams. Our pleasures were those of young people not 

 long married, and full of life and merriment; a single 

 smile from our infant was, I assure you, more valued by 

 us than all the treasure of a modern Croesus would have 

 been. The woods were amply stocked with game, the 

 river with fish ; and now and then the hoarded sweets of 

 the industrious bees were brought from some hollow tree 

 to our little table. Our child's cradle was our richest 

 piece of furniture, our guns and fishing-lines our most 

 serviceable implements, for although we began to culti- 

 vate a garden, the rankness of the soil kept the seeds we 

 planted far beneath the tall weeds that sprung up the first 

 year. I had then a partner, a "man of business," and 

 there was also with me a Kentucky youth, who much pre- 

 ferred the sports of the forest and river to either day-book 

 or ledger. He was naturally, as I may say, a good woods- 

 man, hunter, and angler, and, like me, thought chiefly of 

 procuring supplies of fish and fowl. To the task accord- 

 ingly we directed all our energies. 



Quantity as well as quality was an object with us, and 

 although we well knew that three species of catfish ex- 

 isted in the Ohio, and that all were sufficiently good, we 

 were not sure as to the best method of securing them. 

 We determined, however, to work on a large scale, and 

 immediately commenced making a famous "trot-line." 

 Now, reader, as you may probably know nothing about 

 this engine, I shall describe it to you. 



A trot-line is one of considerable length and thickness, 

 both qualities, however, varying according to the extent 

 of water, and the size of the fish you expect to catch. As 



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