322 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May U 1888, 



%ht ^ottsttfnn gattrip. 



QUIET SPORT.-IV. 



BY MILL.UiL). 



ABOUT foul" inilcs north, "bearing a little wast," Ilea 

 another and a larger lake, where"' solitary and alone" 

 live a quiet i ample, Uncle Philo and Ids wife, whom every 

 visitor is licensed lo address as "Aunty." The lake affords 

 DO sport for the fly-fisherman, but the trolling ia good, and 



many large catches are made in that way. The outlet of the 



lake, however, offers trout and black flies in generous quan- 

 tities, and the biiriT'Sl bungler with rod and reel ean eateh as 

 many of the latter as the most finished expert. 



Dick and Glen sighted the log house of Uncle Philo a few 

 minutes before dinner time. " Philo was hard at work fol- 

 lowing I) plow which was pulled iu a steady-by- jerks fashion 

 by an old black horse which the crows were waiting for. 

 lie was breaking, or trying to break up a patch of ground 

 which he had cleared and was going to "put it into 'taters'' 

 if he and the horse ever finished plowing it. It was getting 

 to be a serious question which got broke up first — the land, 

 tin- horse, or Pbilo's voice, for the old Kosinante's ears were 

 continually filled with "Git up, consarn ve, ye lazy creeter, 

 git up,'' which was the extent of Pbilo's horsy profanity, 

 but repeated so often that the horse rather liked 'it, and appa- 

 rently was always waiting for it and dying to hear it. 



Aunty's call to dinner was a welcome one to all of us. 



"We was alooking fer ye hoys. Expected ye on yester- 

 day. Si! down: sit down," 



: Well, aunty," says Glen after dinner was over, "you 

 have not forgotten liow to prepare a first-class dinner at 

 short notice, and speaking of dinners, Uncle Philo, can you 

 lend me the loon of your razor, for 1 don't know when 1 

 shall have such another chance to slick up." 



"S.-irtin, yes; cf you can make it go. Here it is, but I 

 cnlc'lale you'll have' ter touch her up a leetle 'for you can 

 use it." 



"Thank you, Uncle Philo. I'll touch her up a bit this 

 afternoon before 1 go down the outlet." 



After Glen hud finished his shave, or scrape, and lounged 

 about the house for an hour or two, he and Dick went down 

 to the falls, over which the surplus waters of the lake 

 plunge before fairly entering the outlet, and plunge is what 

 the water does, making summer music as it rushes over on 

 the off side and having sport when it strikes below, makes 

 8 beautiful pool on the nigh side and surrounded with im- 

 mense rocks covered with cushions of moss, while on either 

 shore is a perfect jungle of undergrowth, making il ueees 

 Mi the pool, to Climb One Oj the aforesaid rocks, a 

 feat which Glen presently accomplishes, though choosing 

 one of hhe outer ones, where the trout could not see him and 

 from which he opened hostilities, the rod in his had work- 

 ing with the accuracy of a mathematical instrument. 



He was one of Charles Keade's either-handed men. and 

 hla care in preparation extended to the minutest detail, so 

 when the battle opened he was ready at every point. He 

 was never headstrong, never letting his zeal outrun his dis- 

 cretion, but patient and undisturbed as a sphynx. He will 

 always manage well enough, and even if the "trout escape, 

 he will give Aio sign of disappointment, no matter how 

 lo-enU he may feel it. for he is an iceberg in coolness. 



Ai the second cast the seductive ibis has done its work, 

 ami now, old rod, to business. Humph! two ounces at 

 least, ami not an ounce less. Little fellow, you may go 

 tell the old gentleman there about the nice 

 visit you have had, how sorry you were you couldn't stay 

 longer, and how splendidly you were treated by the pleasant 

 friend you met. Give my compliments to your big sister, 

 and tell tier how pleased 1 should be lo see her. Good bye. 

 .Splash! 



What a retentive memory the two ouncer bad for such a 

 youngster, and how he must have embellished the story of 

 bis travels as he told it with his fluent tongue, for iu a 'few- 

 seconds came another, many times larger and older — one 

 with a great deal of rapid transit about his style; but, he was 

 struck at sight, which is the flash of the trout. You may 

 miss him, but if you were to wait longer, his chances of 

 escaping. Glen believes, are greater than if he met him the 

 better port of half way. He can let go very previously. 



Every angler has his pet theory regarding the twist of the 

 wrist or turn of the hand, and the proper time to put it in 

 practice, but as Glen says he was taught to strike at sight, it 

 has become second nature with him, and as he can capture 

 rather more than a fair proportion by that method, he is not 

 going to sacrifice it. lie is going to break that trout up in 

 business, that's what he is. 



That poor trout is a victim of misplaced confidence. Oh, 

 how could Glen do it? He did it with rod and reel, with 

 silence and celerity. Hid it because beloved it, and the 

 troul, bowing to the inevitable, in ten minutes by the watch 

 and chain, was creeled, and slept with us in sections that 

 night. He was a good one. "Solid-mea ted, game; no liver- 

 fed sluggard, no hot-house product, lame and insipid, that 

 awaited like a prize pL' for his food to be brought to him, 

 fait he was an active sportsman, a warrior bold that had 

 conditioned himself by buffeting the riffs and currents and 

 battling among the eddies for his morning and evening 

 nwal" 



Into the basket went he, while Glen glew with a quiet 

 glow of satisfaction. One's whole after hie might be void of 

 such pleasurable emotions. Even a yes that ends a wooing 

 might he tame iu comparison. To one you can always look 

 hack with a longing for its repetition. To the other— well, 

 we have heard old married people say if they were to do it 

 over again they wouldn't do it. 



Glen was contented when he had landed a dozen that a 

 Christian sportsman need not he ashamed of displaying. In 

 capturing the dozen he had taken some smaller ones, but 

 scrupulously returned them. There was not the slightest 

 particle of the "T. II." in bis composition, and he could 

 uiiblushiugly exhibit the contents of his creel if he cared to 

 show the results of his angliug skill. 



How the black flies bad taken hold while Glen was too 

 busy to accord them the reception they merited, and they 

 had improved their opportunity of displaying their infernal 

 tactics on his cleanly shaven face. 



The black lly season at that particular locality was un- 

 precedeutediy active. They all wore spurs, carried red-hot 

 needles, and stuck closer than the scriptural brother. The 

 million's ol black Hie; that stabbed and sucked a hundred 

 years ago are represented to flay by descendants worthy to 

 Inherit their devilish propensities and proclivities. There 

 has been no degeneration in the stock, for, utterly and hein- 



ously depraved, without an apparent redeeming quality, they 

 maintain the old reputation and carry on the business a's 

 originally established. 



Uncle "Philo and Auntv were waiting supper when Glen 

 returned. 



"Massy, sakes alive! Mr. Glen, but bow the pesky flies 

 have lit onto you." 



"They did father manage to get in their work to their good 

 advantage while I was on the rocks below the fulls; but that's 

 all right, as it was my fault." 



"Your fault?" 



"Yes, for 1 had a bottle of tar and oil but forgot to apply 

 it. so the fault was in a measure my own. Ob, how J have 

 bled anil unconsciously suffered, if such a thing lie possible, 

 the torments Of the damned while handling the rod. Suf- 

 fered when 1 had iu rnv pocket the remedy to alleviate the 

 pain, but all forgetful of if in the delights of casting the fly 

 and making the ripples and quiet pools contribute of then' 

 treasures to my creel. Put me on a runway watching for 

 deer, and if there is one fly about he will demand and secure 

 my attention spite of all the deerwithin five miles.'' 



"Don't you think, Mister Glen, that giving yourself a nice, 

 clean shave was what drew them to you? Dick ain't scarcely 

 touched." 



"That, I think, made no difference " 



"Did you find the razor in good order?" 



"Not first class, but 1 touched it up on the grind-stone, 

 and finished off on the stove-pipe, I was very careful not 

 to nick the stove. It shaved rac, but it pulled "terribly hard. 

 I say. Uncle Philo, wouldn't it be a pood idea to hitch it up 

 with your old black horse and do vour ploughing with the 

 I w o v 1 1 your horse can pull as well as your razor, you will 

 have a team that can walk through every stump in , >ur 

 clearing. But Uncle Philo, I am much obliged for the use 

 of it, and Aunty, that is what I call a way up suppei, one 

 of the kind I firmly believe in putting down,." 

 "So said we all of us." 



Before the purple tints in the west had all faded away, the 

 rest of the Scarlet Ibis Club had joined us, having tempor- 

 arily broken camp at headquarters, and Uncle Phiio's cabin 

 was filled with a sociable party. 



DAVE'S MEDICAL EXPERIENCE. 



IN a former communication* we wrote that poor old Davy 

 W. had paid bis last debt— we might almost have writ- 

 ten his first and last. He was a rare genius, and his name 

 still "blossoms in the dust" of the Yazoo Valley, at least 

 when there is no overflow Upon its fertile fields; for even as 

 we write, through broken barriers the great Father of Rivers, 

 as he sweeps ever southward to the blue Mexican sea, 

 rolls in surging waves over Davy's lonely grave Small in 

 stature, neither strong nor muscular, and with a somewhat 

 "determined" stoop of the shoulders, he appeared at rather 

 a disadvantage among the stalwart raftsmen of the Swamp. 

 It was only when around the camp-fire, while from briar- 

 wood anrj black "dudeen" the fragrant breath of the Indian 

 weed curled upward to the blinking stars, that Dave tow- 

 ered above his fellows, a veritable Anak in the fields of con- 

 temporaneous fiction. Although he was generally the hero 

 of lus own story, yet so unassuming was his manner, so 

 self depreciating" his voice, that one never thought of him 

 as a braggart. 



His face had pesbaps "once been fair," but was when I 

 knew him tanned and weather-beaten. His eyes were ye) 

 i . iu color, with that far-off, dreamy, Indian-sum- 

 mer look that is always associated with peace and content- 

 ment, and so slight was the division which his nose made 

 between them that they seemed almost to run iuto one 

 another, nis hair had once been red, and, with the excep- 

 tion of a whitish patch on the top of his head, was still of a 

 muddy, fox-tail hue, while his beard was tawny and bristl- 

 ing, and each individual hair stood out fierce and defiant 

 like the spines upon ft cactus. It knew no north, no south, 

 no east, no west— a kind of "political board," as Dave once 

 said of old Sol Friloy's pocket compass, "pointing to every 

 tree in the woods." Here I am reminded that Dave would 

 neYez carry one of these "useless contrapshtms," as he 

 called them, depending, as many old hunters do, upon the 

 moss and bark upon the trees for guidance, when skies were 

 "ashen and gray." 



After Dave had finished I he story of his encounter with 

 the "Dutch Yawger," as before related, Ben H. proposed 

 that we should go upon a camp hunt up on "Six-Mile" 

 Bayou. To this Dave and myself assented, and having 

 agreed upon starting the next day, we separated. 



"Bright and early The next morning saw us assembled atthe 

 appointed rendezvous, with our "camp tricks" and a darkey 

 commissary on the roof of an extra mule. 



Taking our course along the eastern bank of the Sun- 

 flower, we crossed that stream at Callao, the plantation of 

 Col. Harvey L. And here, if it will be permitted me. 1 

 would like to make a short digression; Presuming that some 

 of your Northern readers may he ignorant; of what were the 

 qualifications requisite for the acquiring of military titles 

 among the planters of the cotton States iu ant' helium "days- 

 titles so innumerable, that had a modem Napoleon, as No, ,1 

 did when be got Moreau at Eylan. ordered a few shellsdropped 

 among us, he would have bagged a "little general" at every 

 pop — I will for the benefit of the future historian slate", 

 that they were bestowed in accordance with the number of 

 cotton bales upon which the individual planter stenciled 

 his brand. Be it understood, however, that, there were no 

 captains "in those clays." The shipper of his five score bales 

 never ranked lower than Major. When the packages of the 

 fleecy staple readied to double that number he was promoted 

 to Colonel, and when he rolled the comfortable figure of ,100 

 out of his gin house, it was "Glad to meet you, General." 

 If there were "brevets" for the intermediate numbers, the 

 writer knew of none, unless, perhaps, it was "Judge." 



Having crossed the river we continued our course up its 

 western bank, and in a short time struck the Deer Creek 

 trail, following which a few miles brought us to the conflu- 

 ence of "Four-Mile Bayou" and the swift-running Bogue 

 Phalia. Fording the latter stream we soon found ourselves 

 traveling along the bank of a dry bayou, the land upon both 

 sides of which lay in long swelling waves covered with tall 

 grass and a scattering growth of I ices, with here and there 

 small islands of cane upon the most elevated points. As 

 these lands are subject to annual overflows from the local 

 streams, they remain in all their wild, uncultivated beauty, 

 and are favorite feeding grounds for deer, which could 

 always be found in abundance ; until driven to the higher 

 cultivated lands by the past year's disastrous overflow they 

 have been almost exterminated by the ' 'gentleman from 



"FORKBT 4N1) Stuiwm April BO, I8SB, 



Africa,." Pitching our camp near a cleaT pond that slept in 

 depression of the" bayou bed, our camp-fire soon shone 

 brightly through the" gathering twilight, while: around it 

 flitted our sable commissary preparing the evening meal. 

 This dispatched and enjoyed", as such meals always are, we 

 sat awhile iu silence watching the white wreaths' from our 

 lighted pipes as they rose slowly upon the damp night air. 

 each, perhaps— as'our sweethearts used to write they were 

 always doing— "following the lead of his wayward fancies." 



At length, having doubtless holed his game, Ben H. broke 

 the spell with. "I say, Dave, don't it sometimes make your 

 mouth sore for those long-winded yarns you tell to come 

 out of it?" 



"0, no," Dave replied; and then very solemnly, as if the 

 question has conjured up some sad memory of the past, he 

 continued, "but if you wanter hear if I'll tell you all'bout 

 one sore monf I did have wonst." 



"Out with it, then," said Ben, "if it won't make your 

 mouth sore again to tell il." 



"0, no danger o' that; it twati'l, talkin' as done it thai 

 time, no how." said Dave, and, relighting his pipe, he went 

 on. "You see, 'twas while Iwase a-livin* down at the mouth 

 o' Murphy; one day Shot Dupee he come along an' sot bis- 

 self down" on a log whar I was a-fishin' an' begin a-tellin' me 

 as he'd a-went down ter Ditchal's last Sunday an' a-coched a 

 thousan' peerches outen one hole, an' narrer one on em wus 

 er bit bigger nor er bit littler than tother one." 



Here Ben interrupted him with, "And I suppose vou be- 

 lieved all such stuff as that?" 



"O, no," said Dave, "I didn't edzactly believe as to they 

 bein' so near same size. But, as T was a-sayin'. then we sot"- 

 I a-lisbin' an' Shot a talkin', when I looks' up th" river an' I 

 seen er fellow comin' down in er skiff. 'It's one o' tliem 

 pill pedlers,' says Shot, 'an' now's yer chance, Dave, '.says 



,in' no tr/-.,i'., Ir-n^lr.i.* 



sure enough, when that feller lauded he had his skiff full o' 

 all sorts o' powders an' pills an' stickiu' plasters, ten' sich 

 like, nigh onto about twenty bushels, Shot said. Well, what 

 does I do, with Shot a-sayin' all the time, "Buy this yer, 

 Dave,' an' 'Here's the stuff "ter set you up, old feller,' but I 

 lays in a general assortment, ten dollars' worth or therabouts, 

 an' with what the feller throwed in for good measure 

 makin', as nigh as I can come at it, about er hushel an' er 

 half. 



"Well, (want mor'n ten days or two week maybe. I was 

 tooken with a cramp in my left stomik, an' thinks I, Dave, 

 old feller, you're lucky this time, you've got plenty o' sick 

 grub in the house. Well, I jest suet my eyes an' I run my 

 han' down in the chis' sorter chance like"an ; up I fetched e'r 

 little box which were pills all a-iced jest like a weddin' 

 cake. But they didn't seem tu understand the business, so 

 the next dive"! fotched up some kind o' yaller powder?, 

 an' I tooken about a three-finger load on it, but it didn't faze 

 me, then thinks 1 things war gellin' serious, so 1 pitched in 

 kinder indiscriminate like, an' in about a week, as sure as 

 you're alive, the whole o' that physic jest sailed down my 

 weaseu." 



"That is what makes your eyes look so much like the 

 windows of a drug store," said Ben. 



Unheeding the interruption, Dave continued ; 



"Well, by thai time my mouf had got so sore that I don't 

 think 1 could a swallowed another pill if the supply hadent 

 a gin out." 



"Jest about that timeGeorgeBooker.be come along a 

 blowin' up the river, so 1 ruus out on the landin'aud I sorter 

 motioned for him to fetch her iu, for I couldenl a. spoken 

 outen a whisper if I had a wanted to say my prayers. So 

 wheu George he seed me a workin' my arms be lauded her 

 an' 1 went aboard. An' says I, 'George,' says I, in a whisper, 

 T ain't eat a moufful for enemost er month.' Says be, 'What 

 iu the world is the matter. Dave?' Says I, 'God only knows 

 what is the matter,' an' then I ups an' tells him 'bout that 

 pill-peddler, an' how much doctor's grub I'd tooken. 'Oh,' 

 says he, 'you're saliwated.' Says I, "that might a bin his 

 na'me as far as I knows, but anyways he's about llxed me.' 

 Then George he sayshow I mast go down to Yieksimrg an' 

 see er doctor. Well, I puts on er clean shirt an dow r n I goes. 

 an' when I gits thar the first thing I does 1 goes straight up 

 to old Ben Harkaway's medicin' shop, an' I begin a whis- 

 perin' at him as where 's er doctor. 'Oh,' says he, 'you're 

 saliwated, come here an' take er drink o' sollerappeerin.' 



"A drink of what?" said Ben. "f never heard of that 

 brand before." 



"(.), 'i want spirits," said Dave, "'twas some kind o' suit 

 an' water stuff." 



"0, yes; seltzer aperient," said Ben. "Goon." 



" 'All right,' says I, "if 'twill make me appearin' any bet • 

 ter, for I knows I'm lookin' right bad,' says 1. 



"Jest then Doctor Bulver he walks in flie sto", and old Ben 

 says he: 'Doctor Bulver, here's one o' the biggest cotton 

 planters on Bed River badly saliwated. an' I want you to do 

 your level best on him.' Then the Doctor he jest" nods me 

 to come in the back room, an' when we got in thai 

 'Please open your mouf, my friend.' Then he shuck his 

 head, an' says he; 'Yes, a pretty bad case. You must a 

 tooken about forty pouns o' hydrargum iu broken doses, 

 didn't jou?" Says I: 'God only knows what 1 didn't took,' 

 Well, then he tells me ter shel my eyes an' lay down flat my 

 back on the table, an' then he hollers ter old Ben ter fetch 

 him er pint o' aggyforty, an' the fust thing I kuowed he'd 8 

 gapped my mouf wide open an' a poured every drap o' that 

 aggyforty down my goozle, Jerusalem, my happy home! er 

 cup o' red hot biliil' lead wouldent a bin a patchin' to it. an' 

 When 1 open my eyes the blue blazes was jest a shooljn' 

 outen my mouf about ten feet high, clean up to the eeilin' o 

 the sto'." It jest burnt me out cleaner*n a holler log, an' I 

 never beers teil about sore motives since 1 drunk that aggy- 

 forty, but 1 thinks about that pill pedler." 



"1 wish," said BenH.. "we had a pint of that aggyforty 

 to start our tire in the morning." 



Dave lifted his eyes inquiringly to the speaker, hut if he 

 said anything the writer, stretched upon bis blanket with bis 

 feet I o the (ire and his head pillowed upon his saddle, was 

 too far off in the land of dreams to hear him. 



Tl 0KA1IOK. 

 The Yazoo Rivek, Mississippi. 



CLEVELAND, O., May 13. — Killed thirteen snipe May 10. 

 Did not weigh them, hut were the fattest birds 1 ever "saw. 

 Oil would drip from the hands while dressing them, and 

 floated on the water they were washed in, there being a thick 

 layer of white fat nearly all over them. Noticed embryo (?) 

 eggs in some, about as large as mustard seeds. These hirds 

 were in an out of the way place and had, probably, been on 

 disturbed for some time,— Scaipf,, Bcaxpk, 



