The Old Fishing Hole. 



lots of sport and many dollars of spending money for me. 

 Setting my gun against a tree, I went into the thicket and cut 

 a pole ; then, diving into my pockets, I brought out a fish line 

 and a snare. Wading cautiously out on the riffle, I dropped the 

 line in above the fish and worked it slowly down with the cur- 

 rent when near the school. All the big ones darted out of the 

 stream, but I stopped the snare and Held it quietly until they 

 came back, then let it drift over a big fellow's gills and snatched 

 him out. For over two hours I kept up the sport getting a 

 big string of the beauties that made a load for me to carry 

 home. Many a day thereafter until away into November I 

 went alone to this charmed spot, guided from afar by an old 

 dead cottonwood that stood on the island, and, as long as I 

 kept my secret, these visits were always rewarded with a good 

 string of fish. Each time I caught a fish, the school would dis- 

 appear and I was never able to discover their hiding place. 

 However, by the time my catch was on the string and I had 

 waded back, the school would be returning to the shoal ; the 

 small ones first, the large ones working in more cautiously. 

 After an hour or so of this work, the large ones would not 

 return and I would have to quit for that time; but the next 

 day there would apparently be as many as ever on the riffle. 

 All through that fall and the following spring my strings of 

 fish were the envy of my schoolmates, and they tried many 

 times to discover where I caught them, but did not succeed. 

 One day in September (a year after making my discovery) 

 I was returning with one of my boy friends from an unsuccess- 

 ful day on Honey Creek, when in an evil hour, under promise 

 of secrecy, I disclosed to him my hidden fishing hole. My faith- 

 less friend did not prove true to his trust, and it was not long 

 before a path was worn across the island by other feet than 

 mine; the fish became shy of the place where they were con- 

 tinually disturbed and finally disappeared entirely from their 

 old retreat. As one still searches for something that is lost 

 past all hope, so it was with me. I never went past the place 



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