IN THE OOZY PLACES 157 



a helter-skelter pattering departure and cleared 

 out the place. Then we went ashore to stretch 

 our legs and gather a small bundle of willow 

 sticks to boil our kettle at the next stop. 



Just to renew old times I cut a rod, attached 

 a troll, and tried a few casts for a pike. But I 

 was unsuccessful, and anyhow it was easier to 

 lounge on the warm sand, bask in the genial sun, 

 and tell I've-seen-the-day stories to Scout 

 Henry. The landing of a ten-pound pike on a 

 willow rod; the attempted landing of one a shade 

 larger by a rather unskilled friend who after 

 hooking the fish pounced upon it, and in a fran- 

 tic endeavor to hold the slimy monster, embraced 

 and actually hugged it, and in so doing lost it; 

 the mysterious yellowlegs that once insisted on 

 following a fisherman around at heel like a well- 

 trained dog; the pike that ate the little duck- 

 lings; these and many more remembrances of 

 the place were recounted. 



It was not hard to understand why in times 

 of high water, the place was a favorite resort of 

 big pike. The channel then was really lost 

 among the big sloughs flanking it, and here lived 

 hundreds of ducks, coots, grebes, and other 

 marsh birds whose peepers make dainty morsels 



