OLLA PODRIDA 267 



under certain exceptional circumstances it may be 

 induced to disport itself in this manner. W. G. 

 had always felt like fishing, but circumstances had 

 not permitted much indulgence of this inherent de- 

 sire. When he had succeeded in making arrange- 

 ments for a trip to Pike Lake and found himself 

 on the twenty-five-mile drive from the railway 

 station to the lake, he was happy. To be sure, 

 the city-dweller was not quite prepared for the 

 quiet of the woods, and when night came he was 

 heard to aver that it was so still it made him nerv- 

 ous. However, on the whole, he found the experi- 

 ence quite to his liking, and entered with enthusi- 

 asm upon pursuit of the valorous muskallonge. It 

 was the first one he struck which furnished the 

 remarkable phenomenon of walking upon the wa- 

 ter. He was trolling with a steel rod and plenty 

 of line out, when a careless muskie grabbed the 

 hook. The figure which a moment before had 

 been relaxed and seemingly inert, became a mass 

 of steel springs. Over that placid face came a 

 look of such fierceness as fairly to frighten his 

 boat-mates. He began to reel, but that did not at 

 all satisfy his desire for speed. Casting the rod 

 aside, grabbing the line and standing up in the 

 boat, he jerked that muskallonge in, seemingly a 

 rod at a jerk. To the onlookers the fish seemed 

 to touch only the high places on the water, and 

 then only with his tail. Not one muskie out of 

 a thousand has a mouth tough enough to stand 



