Il6 EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 



"Talkin' about fishing" said Fergy, "the 

 other man," not having spoken for half-an-hour, 

 " talkin' about fishin' and th' funny things a man 

 sees sometimes when his eyes ain't shut, reminds 

 me o' a time when I got tired loafin' round 

 Boyd's Hotel and wanted to do a do on m' own 

 reel. I go down to Long Lake an' dump m'se'f 

 inter a piroog, an' I go across an' pike along out 

 inter th' woods. I pike for 550 yards straight 

 as a teal flies when it means buisness, an' I run 

 bang against a little lake I never seen before in 

 my life . . . an' I wanter say as it were broke 

 from end to end with ripples made by the small- 

 mouth bass. They was two million of 'em, or 

 mebbe they was three million. ... I didn't have 

 no more bait as would catch a starvin' minner 

 in a washbowl. I thought hard for three an' a 

 quarter minits, an' then I out wi' th' tail of me 

 red flannel shirt and tore oft a hunk big enough 

 to wrap a penknife in. . . . Now a little piece 

 o' red flannel ain't the most eatful thing in th' 

 worl', but, say, them fish was crazy f r it. It 

 hadn' touched the water when twenty-three of 

 em made a dash f'r it, an' one of 'em that 

 weighed 4^ Ib. got it right in the left gill. Then 

 begun the dadbingedest hurroosh whatever. . , 



