172 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



At the next chance I was bound to miss the fish by 

 throwing under it, if I missed it at all, and I plunged the 

 gig in the water at what seemed an absurd low point and 

 struck a pike of some five pounds. 



'There/' said the man at the paddle, "I knew you 

 could do it if you could only believe the fish was a foot 

 or two below where he looked to be at." This use of the 

 word "at" was new to me then, but I found it common 

 in the West and South. Lately it has had attention 

 called to it by its use in Congress. It sounds odd to 

 those who hear it for the first time. 



And so we passed the first half of the night, and re- 

 turned to the warehouse and slept in it, for Charley had 

 the key; but we took the precaution to take our fish in- 

 side, too, for he said: "The moon will be up in an hour 

 and she'll spoil the fish, and then we don't want minks 

 and wildcats carryin' 'em off or chewing them up. We'll 

 get a ride up in the morning, for Joe Hall's going to 

 bring down some potatoes and there'll be teams down 

 with lead." 



Morning came and we went back with the first empty 

 wagon, taking over two hundred pounds of fish bass, 

 pike, buffalo and big red-finned suckers, which proved 

 to be the "red-horse;" and I had been initiated into the 

 mysteries of jacking for fish, handling a gig, had re- 

 ceived a lesson in practical optics, and knew positively 

 that a fish in the water was not always in the place which 

 it appeared to be u at." 



Somewhere in an omnivorous course of reading I re- 

 member a statement that "Man shall not live by bread 

 alone," and in the practical every-day life it began to be 

 painfully evident that no matter how desirable it might 

 be to hunt and fish forever, there were needs other than 

 what the chase afforded. There was a man who really 



