82 FRUIT RANCHING. 



barely giving himself time to swallow a bite of food, 

 ofT he went to prey upon the unwary trout in the 

 deep, swift, lumulluuus Kootenay river, which danced 

 past his house not fifty yards distant. And there he 

 would remain until darkness of the summer night 

 made it impossible for him to see. He hardly ever 

 came home empty-handed. 



Now, Lawrie's prowess excited Leslie's slumbering 

 ambition. He, too, wanted to be a fisherman, and 

 "catch mother a trout for supper." He tried his 

 'prentice hand with a makeshift rod, and caught a 

 few small fish occasionally. His mother, sceptical as 

 to his ability, declared she would give him a dollar 

 for the first big fish he brought home with him. A 

 new rod was bought for him, and down he went in 

 Lawrie's wake. Ere many minutes we heard him 

 afar ofT, returning in a state of uncontrollable excite- 

 ment and triumph, carrying a big rainbow trout. It 

 turned the scale at close upon 3 lbs. 



But Leslie's success as a fisherman was not unique : 

 his mother's matched it. Her triumph was won in 

 the wider, deeper waters of Kootenay Lake. One 



evening a friend, Mrs. S , called and begged 



Maggie to accompany her and Mr. S for a row 



on the lake. As it happened, Mrs. S had a line out, 



with a minnow at the end, trailing behind the boat. 

 Maggie related Leslie's adventure, and concluded her 

 narrative with a remark on how much she herself 



would like to catch a fish. Mrs. S put the line 



into her visitor's fingers. Her visitor's fingers closed 

 upon it, and her visitor went on talking. Suddenly 

 she forgot the thread of her discourse, and cried 

 excitedly, "Oh! there's something on the hook!" 



