Vain Glory 



by his size. My father deemed it some sort of carp. 

 The scales in the pantry showed ten pounds, ten of 

 the lightest pounds I am sure they ever registered. 

 The news spread over the neighborhod like wildfire, 

 and shortly the porch was crowded with admiring 

 friends. 



Nothing tragic thus far. Rather the End of a 

 Perfect Day, wouldn't you say? But just when the 

 crowd was thickest and admiration the keenest and 

 my joy the most complete, in walked the town's wisest 

 angler. His first glance was filled with rapture too, 

 due largely to the spluttering light the lamp was shed- 

 ding on my prize. Adjusting his glasses and reliev- 

 ing himself in part of his accumulated tobacco juice, 

 he drew nearer. Such a look of disgust, it has never 

 been my pleasure to see before or since, as he said: 

 " Grindle. Not worth a damn ! " 



After the gathering had broken up and they did 

 not linger long I took the poor, discredited thing 

 into the kitchen where we were wont to prepare our 

 fish for the table and freshened him up a bit in the 

 dish pan. He still had a touch of life in his bones, 

 for he weakly wabbled his tail as the cool water soft; 

 ened the coat of sand that bound him. It was then 

 that I got my first whiff of him, an odor the like of 

 which I have never known the combined essences of 

 all the mud on this planet. 



The years that have flown have tempered the shock 

 151 



