58 HUNTLEY'S LAKE. 



instead of myself?" he whined, pathetically; "nothing 

 ever hurts you." 



His wife and myself tried to reassure him, telling him 

 how utterly preposterous his conduct was, but all to 

 no purpose. Tom persisted he had swallowed the fish- 

 hook, and as a careful search of the heads and entrails 

 of the fishes we had eaten for supper failed to reveal 

 the missing hook, nothing could convince him to the 

 contrary. After a little while Tom began to feel a 

 severe pricking pain in the abdominal region, which 

 gradually grew worse and worse, until, at last, about 

 two hours after, he was stretched upon a bed with 

 three doctors in attendance, and periodically uttering 

 the most heartrending shrieks and cries, which he 

 averred it was impossible to stop, owing to the pain he 

 suffered. The doctors could do nothing, and plainly 

 intimated to Tom's wife and myself the only thing the 

 matter with their patient was an excessive imagination, 

 scouting the idea of his having the hook as perfectly 

 ridiculous. 



In about another hour Tom got so bad that I plainly 

 saw unless something was done to drive the idea out 

 of his head he soon would become a subject for the 

 coroner. I called Tom's wife aside, and made her bring 

 me Tom's tackle-box. After a search I found an old 

 hook of precisely the same size and pattern as the one 

 Tom had been using when he caught that unfortunate 

 perch in the morning. From this hook I broke off the 

 snell as near the shank as possible. After some search- 

 ing I selected the biggest perch's head I could find, and 

 although it was not the head of the big fish he had 

 caught in the morning, yet it might pass for it. I 

 fixed this hook firmly in the back of its gills, saw that 

 everything looked natural, and assuming a joyous ex- 

 pression of countenance, burst into the bedroom in 

 which Tom lay, now seriously ill, and yelled out in an 

 exultant voice: 



"I've found that confounded old fishhook, old fellow; 

 you never swallowed it at all, for here it is!" 



