Outfit The Gaff. 69 



carried it off to the ice-house. I was too obtuse to under- 

 stand a mild suggestion from my host, that if I varied my 

 usual practice of giving my fish to the Indians by turning 

 this one over to him, he would find it very useful. 



A hint to the wise and the wily is sufficient. As soon 

 as his back was turned I cut the lashings that bound the 

 gaff to its staff, and hid it in the bottom of my trunk. Hav- 

 ing thus nine points of the law in my favor, I approached 

 the owner of the gaff in pursuit of the lacking tenth, with 

 that placid smile and bland demeanor which usually veil 

 duplicity. As I expected, another mild intimation that 

 the salmon would be useful was soon offered. But I was 

 very doubtful what I should do with that salmon. Then 

 I changed the subject to the gaff where it was made and 

 whom by, and could one like it be had, and at what cost. 

 No sooner did he name the price than I pushed the money 

 into his astonished hand, told him to go and have one 

 made, and that the salmon he desired should be his for 

 the trouble; that as a good citizen my duty to my fellow- 

 countrymen forbade me to allow a gaff so perfect in every 

 respect to leave my possession; that it was buried in my 

 trunk, and that there it should remain until I arrived in 

 New York. 



When I consider the matter in the abstract, I am forced 

 to admit it was rather a shabby return for his kindness. 

 But when I look upon it in the concrete on the gaff it- 

 self as it now lies before me my scruples vanish, and I 

 regard it with the utmost complacency. At all events, if 

 its acquisition was a wrong, that wrong is mine, and the 

 reader in partaking of its benefits need assume no moral 

 responsibility therefor. 



Should I say I had never seen a really good gaff in a 



