676 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



by the seaside all night to secure it for you next day, and sees that no one 



fishes near enough to draw your fish away. He wakes you up at three in 



the morning, tells you that is the best time for fishing, takes you to his 



favorite rock, tells you there is a whirl, Bass rising, that there are plenty 



of fish. You cast — your imagination paints a fifty-pounder at the end of 



your line — you jerk, and find you are fast to the seaweed. You reel in 



carefully, disengage your hook, and cast again, seventy-five feet if 



you can, and let your bait sink a foot or so, and commence reeling in 



slowly again, when all at once your line straightens and you have him 



sure enough. — Now Uncle Billy's time has come. " Give him line," sings 



out the old man ; " now hold him a little ; not too tight ; now ease him ofi": 



I tell you he's a sixty-pounder ! Look out,, or you'll lose him, if you hold 



him so tight ! Give him line ! Keep him away from that rock 1 That's 



right — now give him line — more line !" " How can I," says the excited 



angler, " don't you see my line is foul on my reel ?" " The devil it is !" 



says Uncle Billy, adding a few more exclamations in language not polite. 



" Then there goes your line, and there goes the fish ; I knew you would 



lose him. That fish weighed sixty-five pounds, every ounce of it." Sadly 



you wind up your broken line, ruminating on the perfect knowledge these 



baiters have of the exact weight of every large fish the angler loses — they 



have a method of weighing them under water peculiarly their own. 



As I have spun my yarn and wound in my line, I'll "knock off," and 



subscribe myself, 



Yours truly> 



Clem. 



