OLLA PODRIDA 257 



splash of muddy water as the frightened victim 

 struggled in the shallow pool. Clean clothes and a 

 mother's injunctions were forgotten in the lust of 

 the chase. In he waded and gathered that fish to 

 his heart with both arms. When the father re- 

 turned from investigating conditions in the house, 

 there stood the lad, wet, muddy, but triumphant. 

 What kind of a fish? The boy neither knew nor 

 cared. It was a fish and that was quite enough, 

 especially when accompanied by the unquestioning 

 conviction that it was the biggest fish in all the 

 world. Since that boy has grown to manhood he 

 has often said to himself as he looked upon an un- 

 promising bit of water, " You never can tell. If 

 fish are to be caught in your front dooryard, where 

 may you not find them ? " 



Many trout come to view as we peer into the 

 mists of the long ago, but, among them all, two are 

 in a class by themselves. One of them came out of 

 the Otselic River on a day when the boy had been 

 berrying and had made a failure. Swinging his 

 empty pail, he came to the river just where it had 

 dug its way into the bank and formed a deep pool 

 over which the alders hung. No normal boy goes 

 abroad on any day, save Sunday, without a fish- 

 hook and line in his pocket. Bringing forth these 

 essentials to happiness, he found a pole, dug an 

 angleworm from a muddy spot, and dropped his 

 bait just where the water was blackest. Sunfish 



