The Black Bass 



plow or plant, when he can repair to the 

 creek or pond with his rude tackle and 

 realize his fond dreams of fishing for black 

 bass ! And when such a day arrives, as it 

 is sure to do, how he hurries through the 

 chores, and with what sanguine hope he 

 digs for angle-worms in the garden, or nets 

 crawfish or minnows in the brook, each one 

 good for at least one " sockdolager " of a 

 bass. For it sometimes happens that a bass 

 will take a wriggling earth-worm or a "soft 

 craw " when it will not deign to notice the 

 choicest minnow or the most cunningly 

 devised artificial fly. 



And the country lad always knows just Youthful 

 where an old " whopper " of a bronze-back 

 black bass has his lair beneath the roots of 

 a big tree, or under the ledge of a moss- 

 grown rock. To do future battle with 

 such an one has engrossed his thoughts by 

 day and his dreams by night, ever since the 

 Christmas tree for him bore such fruit as 

 a linen line, a red and green float and a 

 dozen fishhooks. 



The triumphal march of a Roman war- 



7 



