300 Fish Stories 



and distant vibrant boom, boom, boom of the frogs, the 

 soft wind, like velvet, the drifting blue smoke from pipes, 

 Jim's musical laugh over new stories from the big city and 

 then sleep on green living branches, each one fragrant and 

 life-giving ! 



As I awoke, the sunbeams were tipping over the Blue 

 Mountain hills into the lake which was a sheet of glass, 

 clear, pure and beautiful, reflecting a thousand trees in 

 varied tints of red and yellow, green and white. 



" I've been watchin' a deer swim the lake for the past 

 half hour," said Jim as I awoke. " Instead of goin' dead 

 across like he natchally would, he tuck it the longest way, 

 an' I reckon he's goin' by Ned Buntline's up Eutowana 

 way." Jim was that kind of a man, he could watch a buck 

 swim up the lake and not take a pot shot at him, and I fancy 

 that is why we tied up to Jim year after year. After break- 

 fast we brought out the fishing tackle, got aboard the canoes, 

 and started in at the real and vital object in life — ^trolling 

 for trout. 



The lake water was cold and pure and deep, and the 

 minnow flashed like a meteor in its dark depths astern as 

 I reeled out the delicate silk line. Not thirty feet had gone 

 before the resilient rod leaped madly down, the little reel 

 gave tongue like a hound on a fresh scent, and then, ah, the 

 joy of it! a trout on a slack line, bear that in mind, angler, 

 leaped madly into the sunshine that had reached the summit, 

 and in great beams of light poured down into the serene 

 waters of the lake, leaped and flung a cascade of glistening 

 drops high in air and fell to dash away, making everything 

 hum, to the laughter of Jim, who was not banking on a 

 strike so early and so pronounced. 



The trout struck not ten feet from a little island that 

 seemed to jut out from the shore as a point, and made a 

 savage rush to reach the intervening water where a partly 

 submerged log bridged it with the shore ; but the fates, good 

 luck and a better split bamboo turned it just in time, stopped 



