The Keeper of the Spring-House 49 



so they will remain to man's last syllable of 

 recorded time. 



Shade of Ike Walton, as a fisherman in com- 

 parison to either "Jinny Pipe" or "Gooey Bill," 

 you are as a pollywog to a whale. "Patience on 

 a monument," come and hire yourself out as an 

 understudy to the "Keeper of the Spring-house." 

 All American Eagles, in the name of common 

 honesty, I call upon you to dissolve your robbers' 

 trust, and come and learn from "Gooey Bill" how 

 to get a living on the square; "The Keeper of 

 the Spring-house" would scorn seines, snag lines 

 or phantom bait, nothing under-handed about 

 him. In the gray of the morning, when he comes 

 sweeping down the shore from the bluffs along 

 Sherwood Forest, he is sounding his rattle all the 

 way, and when he hits the roof at his old fishing- 

 place, he calls to all the little fishes, "Here I am, 

 and it's to be a fair fight and no favor." When 

 I read how the Psalmist said all fishermen are 

 liars, then my Kingfisher is my refuge and a very 

 present help in trouble; 'tis the "Keeper of the 

 Spring-house" who has made it possible for me 

 to find a sermon in a fisherman, and consequently 

 good in everything. 



Once upon a time the Man's Wife and little 

 daughter, with a party of friends, were out in a 

 little gasoline boat, and when they started away 

 the skies were as sweet as Tennyson's "Dream of 



