Little Bob's First Bass 



Mr. H. C. Mahin, of Lafayette, Indiana, sent in a 

 little masterpiece. A sweeter story has never been 

 told by a fond Daddy than he tells about his four- 

 year-old son " Bob." Little boy, little boy Bob, you 

 have had your first lesson in game fish preserva- 

 tion, and you have given us older boys something 

 to emulate. It makes one shudder, Bob, to think 

 that there are big men in this world who would 

 have kept that little bass. 



The profession of being Daddy to a small boy is 

 a more or less serious calling, for, to use a contem- 

 porary idiom, we have to watch our step pretty care- 

 fully. As the tree is bent, so is the twig inclined; 

 and our kids are inclined to follow in our footsteps 

 pretty closely, sometimes. 



Last year I became enthused over bass fishing in 

 the Wabash, Tippecanoe, and tributary waters near 

 Lafayette, and of course Bob, at four, absorbed the 

 spirit purely by emulation. His favorite bed-time story 

 was one concerning " Billy Bass," which had a close 

 second a little later in the year in the tale of " Daddy 

 Duck, Mummer Duck and Tommy Duck ! " His one 

 absorbing ambition was to get a little bigger and a 



19 



