The Wages of Sin 



orable evening on a pond in Taylor County, Florida? 



No, those were exciting events, and so was the ex- 

 perience of losing the big barracuda off Key Largo, 

 in Florida, but they were not tragic they had their 

 compensations, and caused no bitter regrets. There 

 is a certain trouting experience that might do, but 

 I was a grown man when it occurred. 



The tragic moment that stands out in my experi- 

 ences was a never-to-be-forgotten Monday morning 

 in the vicinity of New Lothrop, Michigan, back in 

 1879, in the days when boyish emotion made disap- 

 pointments real tragedies indeed. There was a creek 

 flowing through New Lothrop, and just below the 

 wagon bridge it was dammed to furnish water for 

 my uncle's grist mill. He owned a store there, a saw 

 mill and a grist mill, had a wonderful rambling house, 

 and an orchard that produced such apples as one can- 

 not now find or was it a boy's supersensitive palate 

 that discovered rare flavors in such fruit? It was my 

 privilege to spend my long summer vacation that year 

 with my uncle, or rather with my grandmother, Mrs. 

 Janet McKay, who lived near-by. 



Given a creek which harbored numerous rock bass, 

 many sunfish and a few pickerel, any boy of nine would 

 be sure to turn ardent fisherman, and I haunted the 

 water every available moment. Even in those days 

 there were times when the fish were willing to meet 

 a lad halfway and bite satisfactorily, and other times 



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