blanks in his search. Brother number two finally returned 

 without the notes and gave it as his opinion that I liad 

 never given him any notes. This was awkward on num- 

 ber one, because he had related very minuteh' just how 

 he had presented the notes to the debtor. 



So it was, as an Irishman said, "like bein' in the 

 cinther of a hobble,'' and with a look of despair, some- 

 thing like the pictures we used to see of the "Knight of 

 the Rueful Countenance," the}' gave up the hunt and 

 acknowledged they would have to give the debtor a bond 

 to keep him harmless from the notes if they ever turned 

 up, and their only apology for their carelessness was that 

 notes in West Virginia "ain't much account, no how, 

 when they'd got to be sued for," and so they didn't "set 

 much store by them." 



At the lumbering town of Ronceverte, W. Va., eleven 

 miles below here, on the Greenbriar river, a great boom 

 and a gigantic saw mill have for 3'ears impeded the pas- 

 sage of black bass, trout and other fish up the river, which 

 of olden times was always a noted stream for the bass. 

 The fish used to be of immense size, and, of course, as 

 gamey as black bass can ])e in cold mountain streams. 

 During the early spring of this year the ice and winter 

 floods caused a break in the big dam which took consider- 

 able time in repairing, and \o and behold, the river this 

 summer is full of the fighting beauties eager to take fly, 

 minnow or even bait, hungry — voraciously hungry — and 

 now there is "fishing as is fishing,'' and the Izaak Wal- 

 tons are wending their way hither from distant parts to 

 pursue their fascinating sport. 



ij8 



