CHAPTER V. 



DEEP LAKE AND SUN LAKE. TOMMY AND THE GOAT. 



Instead of teaching the young idea how to shoot, I 

 have endeavored to instil into the mind of Johnson 

 Junior a due appreciation of the delights of fishing. A 

 trip for perch, three weeks ago, so enthused my oldest 

 son Tommy that he has since been able to think and 

 speak of nothing but fishing. 



At the present moment Tommy is laid up for repairs, 

 is in the deepest disgrace, and bears the general ap- 

 pearance of a small boy who has inadvertently run up 

 against a thrashing machine. This state of affairs is 

 all due to Tommy's attempt to prematurely enjoy the 

 pleasure of playing and killing a large fish, or, more 

 correctly speaking, a big goat of the William species. 



It appears that Tommy was so brimful of the day's 

 sport he had with the perch on his memorable fishing 

 trip, that he talked the matter over with a neighbor's 

 boy, and they mutually agreed it would be splendid 

 fun to hook something big, to chase it around in turns, 

 and hold the rod alternately, just to see how it would 

 feel to have something big pulling at the top of a 

 fish pole. After much confab it was decided the some- 

 thing big in this instance should be an old billy goat 

 belonging to one of the neighbors. 



Tommy and his fellow conspirator, by the judicious 

 presentation of a plug of tobacco, succeeded in de- 

 taching the goat from his usual pasture of odds and 

 ends, and inveigling him into our back lot when the 

 rest of the family were away. They thoughfully bor- 

 rowed my favorite Bethabara casting rod, fixed up the 

 reel, and having rigged it up with an extra strong 

 running line and big hook, Tommy took the rod for 

 the first innings. The neighbor's boy fixed the hook 

 (45) 



