Il8 EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 



The story of the old maskallonge of the 

 Bend is amusing, but too long to quote suffi- 

 ciently to give a fair idea of the fight. 



" ' The other man ' picks out a saplin' 22 ft. 

 high, an' he says to me to trim the limbs orT'n 

 it clear to top ; I done it. ' Now,' he says, 

 ' get as high as you kin an' bend it down to 

 the ground.' I swung down th' top. It were 

 a hickory saplin', an' tough as a boardin'-house 

 steak. He fastened on the end o' the chain to 

 it, an' then we let it fly back straight. That 

 left 75 ft. o' chain, or mebbe 76 ft. . . . 

 He baited the big hook with a bull frog that 

 mus' a bin a foot an' a arf long from nose to 

 hind-leg tip, an' he mus' a weighed 2 Ib. 10 oz., 

 or mebbe n. He dropped the frog inter the 

 water an' hustled for shore. 



" We sit down on th' bank and waited. The 

 musky wasn't at home, but in half-an-hour we 

 saw that float go under in a flash. Then begin 

 the durndest circus you ever see. They was a 

 swirl in the water like a whirlpool was there, 

 an' a fish come up two yard above th' top o' 

 it, and went back with a kerflummux that sent 

 little waves over the lilypads five hundred yards 

 in every direction. . . . Fust he'd go down 



