GRAY'S LAKE. 103 



I recollect a party of Chicago fishermen who once 

 fished it on a wager. They paired off in couples, two 

 in each boat, with the understanding that the two "who 

 lost were to pay for a supper. The rule was, pickerel 

 and bass only to count, and nothing under a pound 

 weight in bass and three pounds in pickerel. I was 

 with one couple during their catch, and noticed that 

 each fish caught was weighed immediately on a small 

 steel pocket balance they carried, and if deficient a 

 few ounces only it was stuffed with a little mud and 

 weeds until it would pass muster. 



This discrepency in weight reminded me of Dan'l 

 Bruce, an old ante-bellum darky of Missouri. Dan used 

 to spend his time fishing for catfish, and one day after 

 having imbibed as much "bust-head" as the saloon- 

 keeper would trust him with went to the creek and 

 caught a thirty-pound catfish the first cast of his line. 

 Daniel took out an antiquated steelyard which he al- 

 ways carried and weighed it. To Dan's joy it just 

 turned the scale at thirty pounds. 



"Lor' bress my soul," he ejaculated, almost turning a 

 somersault in his delight; "no more work for dis haar 

 nigger for a month." So overpowered was he, with the 

 joint effects of the liquor he had previously swallowed 

 and his big catch, he lay down and went to sleep 

 soundly on the grass. 



Another darky who had been fishing, unobserved by 

 Daniel, in a small reed brake about two hundred yards 

 up the stream, had watched Dan make his catch and 

 had seen him weigh it. This darky also had caught a 

 small catfish weighing just a pound. He patiently 

 waited till Dan was fast in dreamland, and then quietly 

 sneaking up substituted his own fish for the large one 

 lying on the grass beside the slumbering Daniel and 

 made off. 



After a while Daniel awoke, and gazing around the 

 first object that met his eyes was the insignificant little 

 catfish his neighbor had left. He arose to his feet 

 slowly, with his eyes bulging out like saucers, and 



