so 4 
FOREST AND _ STREAM. 
i&ct. 20, igoo. 
The coon escaped from two trees, and was nbt caught 
tintu the tnird tree was teUed. 'Ihere was a great deal ol 
3fiojse and excitement attendmg this km, but i had Deen 
suneitcci witn both, so remained in retirement. My ap- 
petite tor blood and carnage was absolutely satished. I 
riaven t become aamcied tu the vice oi coon hunting. Ii 
is not sport, i aamit prejudice, but it is not the prejudice 
at ignurance. 1 am a vcttran, and can show scars to 
.prove it. l-Ewis Hopkins. 
On Medicme brook. ^ 
-It was one of those hot, sultry .\ugust days, so nut 
that this Old world or ours seemed ready to Durst into 
name, the air quivered with tne heat, and the leaves 
on the bircnes and map.es and the many busues lining 
tiie bauKS ot IVtedicme Jbrooic curied up, parched and 
dried, because ot tne heat, hven the tali puies suuered. 
inese Old Kings ot the lorest laid aside their wonted air 
ot proud nidiuerence, and stretched up their arms ap- 
peanngiy to Heaven. . 
'•Oive us rain," they moaned, "or we perish. 
It, needed but a spark to transform this vast forest into 
a roaring sea of dame, and the men ot the woods knew 
this and exercised due caution. 
Vvith a single exception, tne fishes in the brook were 
the only hvuig things that contrived to keep cool, and 
even they were glad to seek the sheltering shade of the 
overhanging bushes at the bottom ot some deep pool. 
I happened upon this lone exception quite unexpectedly, 
and aiihougii not wholly unprepared, still the discovery 
came in the nature of a surprise. 
1 was wading down the brook, fighting mosquitoes and 
fiies, and saying things, and at the same time endeavor- 
ing to keep up an appearance of hshing. Ihe trout were 
lazy and responded but indifferently to the most clever 
manipulation with fly or baited hook of which I was 
capable. 1 was disgusted with the fish, but it was cooler 
in the water than anywhere else, so I was in no hurry 
to leave the stream and return to the hot, odoriferous 
lumber camp where we had foolishly taken up our quar- 
ters. A lumber camp in hot weather is a thing all wise 
men will shun. 
I rounded a bend in the stream, and stopped short in 
my tracks at the sight that met my eyes. Lying in the 
water at full length, and squirming about in a strange, 
unaccountable manner, with only his head appearing 
above the surface, was the Doctor. 
Now I knew that he was fishing on the stream, but he 
should have been about half a mile ahead of me, as I had 
placed a full mile between ourselves when we started out 
that morning. I calculated that this wotild give the trout 
time to settle down and recover from the panic which 
the Doctor's passage through any stream always caused 
among the inhabitants thereof. _ I knew that this inter- 
vening distance would be considerably lessened by the 
time we had covered three or four miles, as the Doctor 
possessed ways and means of getting into difficulties 
known only to himself, but we had not been fishing much 
over an hour, and here he lay before me. 
"What in thunder arc you trying to do?" I exclaimed 
when T had fully grasped the situation, and realized that 
it was the Doctor himself in the flesh and in the water. 
He raised himself to a sitting posture. 
"Oh, hello there," he called out in a tone of relief. 
''It's you, it is? Was afraid you never would come. 
I've been waiting here for hours." 
"What are you wallowing around in the water for?'". 
I asked, wading toward him. "Trying to get cool?" 
"Cool," he cried, and I noticed that his teeth were 
chattering. "Cool? Why, man alive, this water is sim- 
ply frigid. I am chilled tlrrough and through." 
"Why don't you get out then," I inquired, wondering 
at this new phase of the Doctor's ever changing char- 
acter. ! 
"You don't suppose I am staying in here on purpose, 
or for the fun of the thing, do you?" he asked re- 
proachfully. "I'm caught by the leg and can't get out. 
My foot is between two rocks, and I can't budge it. For 
Heaven's sake come and help me, I'm frozen." 
I went to his assistance, and soon had him released 
from his uncomfortable watery couch. He found a sunny 
spot on the top of a huge boulder in midstream, and 
spread himself out there to dry. 
"It was a new experience for me," he explained. "I 
was standing on one of those rocks when my foot slipped 
down between them and I found myself caught in a trap. 
The more I tried to pull it out, the tighter it became 
wedged in. I stood there and stood there, until I felt 
like one of those 'standing room only' signs in front of 
the theaters. And then the thought struck me that if 
I laid down in the water it . would help matters some. 
But it wasn't much of a thought, after all, because when 
carried into effect it only made matters worse. My foot 
refused to be released, and when I went to stand up I 
found that standing room had all been taken, and 1 
couldn't budge. It was really a serious predicament to 
be in, and might have ended disasterously for me." 
I congratulated him on his escape from a watery grave, 
and asked him what luck he had met with fishing. 
"Nothing to speak of," he replied. "You see I am not 
used to this new rod of mine, it is so long, and has 
such a peculiar action. When I get the hang of the 
thing, though, I'll beat you all. I know its possibilities." 
Now this rod of the Doctor's was a source of no little 
amusement, blended with a slight degree of awe, to the 
rest of us. It was fully eighteen if not twenty feet in 
length. He had made it himself— that is, he had bought 
a long cane pole, and cut it into lengths of four or five ' 
feet and then jointed them. The ferrules were not the 
right size for the joints, but the Doctor had stitck them 
on in some way, and the completed rod had as many 
different angles as there were joints, and an endless 
variety of eel-like movements when in use. It was a rod 
full. of surprises, and, according to the Doctor, great 
possibilities when manipulated by one thoroughly familiar 
with, the complexity of its Character. But the Doctor 
was not such a one. However, he was not easily dis- 
couraEred. and strua-gled manfully, day after day, to sub- 
due this strange thing fashioned by his own hands, 
"When I pull a trout out the water," the Doctor 
continued from his perch on the boulder, "I never know 
in what direction he is going, nor where he will land. 
If I plan to toss him out on the bank. he. is more than 
iikely to coiiie straight at me and' slap Me in the facd. 
'i'o say the least this is apt to prove disconcerting, i 
have lost more than three good ones m that way this 
morning. \'ou may have noticed another one, back 
there, hanging from the branch of a tree about thirty feet 
above the stream. I'hey often land ih trees, generally 
in a tree that is hard to climb, too. How do you suppose 
it happens so?" 
"Can't say," I replied, "unless it's the joints that cause 
the trouble. They don't seem to be properly balanced, 
or something is out of order„" 
"Maybe so," said he. "I'll look tlie thing over;_ not 
that it will do anj' good, liecalise I've spent ihost Ot my 
time since I've been here in doing nothing else." 
t left him e.xaming the odd contrivance, and continued 
on down the stream with a better prospect of catching 
a few "lunkers" now that the Doctor was behind me. 1 
had fair luck, good enough to make mfe forget the heat 
and insects and other discomforts of the body. I waited 
for him at the bridge where the road to camp crossed 
the stream. His basket was almost empty, and I took 
pity on him and transferred some of my trout into his 
creel, well knowing that by the time we reached camp 
he would be able to give a vivid account of just where 
and how he had caught each and every one of them. 
It was an extraordinary faculty he possessed. 
Jack had met with better luck than the rest of us. He 
is one of the few men I know that can successfully 
manage a fly. I always make a botch of fly casting. 
Jack was bemoaning the loss of two big trout. 
"They were two large ones," he .said, sighing deeply. 
"Great big lunkers. They would have gone over two 
pounds apiece, I am sure. I alinost had 'em on the bank, 
too. I'll never get over it, and I'll always be wondering 
just how much they did weigh." 
"Makes me think of an experienc^'bf mine this sunlr 
mer," said the Doctor. "I was driving through the 
country, and missed my way, and before I knew it night 
came on, and with it a thunder shower. I was forced 
to take refuge in the first house I came to. In response 
to my loud halloo, a man appeared from the house, and 
came leisurelv toward me. He was well on in years, but 
seemed qitite active, notwithstanding. 
'"From the expression of his countenance I judged 
him to be of a stern and melancholy disposition. He 
wore a gray bunch of whiskers, very rhuch like a paint 
brush, on his chin which was constantly in motion. 
Whether the motion vvas caused from the use of tobacco 
or from a habit of whispering to himself 1 could not 
tell, as he did both incessantly. ■ 
" T should like to put tip here l6i*#ie night if possible," 
I said. 'May I?' " ' " ' 
"He looked me over carefully, including the horse and 
buggy and ev^erything else in the inspecrtion, 
" 'Yep,' said he, and vouchsafed not another word, but 
opened the gate, and I drove. up to the barn. 
"He unharnessed my horse for me in silence, and led 
him to a stall and backed my buggy under a shed to 
shelter it, from the. storm, and then conducted me to the 
house, still maintaining that oppressive silence. 
"After supper I tried to make conversation, but my 
elt'orts were of no avail. There were only himstjlf and 
wife present, and they were sphinxes. All a.t once,: when 
I was beginning to. despair, he picked up his chair and 
slowly crossed the room and planted it very deliberateh' 
alongside of mine, and sat down. I smiled encourag- 
ingly, but he never once looked up and his wife kept 
right on, with her knittin.g. 
"Suddenly he turned his head and stared at me out of 
wide open, light bhte-eyfs, _a.nd 'made this remarkable 
statement: . , 
" 'I ain't committed a sin fer seyen long years,' he said, 
in slow, passionless tones, and then paused long enough 
for .this unusual assertion to sink deep into my brain. 
"Fer seven long years,' he repeated, as though he would 
clinch the argument. 'Abaout eight years ago I com- 
mitted two large ones.' 
"It was so unexpected that I spoiled evervthing and 
blurted out a loud 'Ha ! Ha ! !' 
" 'We don't 'low no levity 'raound here,' the old 
woman remarked, without lifting her eyes from her work. 
The old man picked up his chair and returned to his 
former place beside his wife. 
"I felt myself in disgrace, and sneaked off to bed: 
In the morning I tried to draw him out, but he was a 
stone wall for silence. Haven't been trul}' happy since. 
I am always wondering what those 'two large ones' could 
have been. Your two trout made me think of it," he 
concluded, turning to Jack. 
I am sorry the Doctor told that story, because I, too, 
have been wondering ever since. 
A day or two before we broke up camp the Doctor fur- 
nished. his customary diversion. We had been looking 
for it, and had begim to think that he was going to dis- 
appoint us, but he was true to himself. 
There was a certain bend where Medicine Brook 
formed a broad, deep pool, and in that pool there was 
always a big trout waiting for me. It was my discovery, 
and needle.ss to say I kept it to myself. C3n one side • 
the bank rose with a steep ascent to a height of forty or 
fifty feet from the edge of the stream. A big beech tree, 
growing at the foot of the embankment, stretched out 
its branches far over the water, and the current had 
scooped out deep hollows beneath its mots,-, and thert 
is where the trout loved to li'e.'n; 
On this particular day I 'we^rit forth from camp with 
the determination firm- in my brea>:t to break all record.^. 
It was a .fine day for the 'fish? The rain had come and 
goife, leavin.s a curtaii^, of fleecy clouds over the f-.u:e 
of the scorching suni- the air ^vas. fresh aitd cool, and a. ^ 
light west wind rustled through.' the tail trees. Sur?b 
the trout would bit^ - well on such : a day, and !■ wiag ilt^ 
cliiicd to anticipate :my 'Sticcess. ,. ' ,. . _ 
As I drew near the pool I paused and baited my:hook. ■ 
and made all -ready to cast in. and then crept catitionsly 
forward. . But 'just- aS 'I gained the clump of .bushes 
behind which I vv^as 'wont.~to conceal myself when. angling ;■■ 
in this bend, my attention wai suddenly arT£ste-d-:by: the ' 
sound of a voi^ev. Ii ItoOked 'abont.;.bjut-.theT.e; was pu 
one in sisrht. and I was be?-innTftg to. 'think; sthatvniy ear.s 
had deceived me, when a slight rrustlingi*! tfie big beech 
tree caused me to glance up. and the njjEStery; was -solved. 
The voice belonged to the Doctor, of course. 
He was working himself slowly along a limb of the 
- - tree overhangiilfg lite pool, and-'fHat-teringvto himself in 
unnii-stakable teniiS oi d sapproVal. Dangling from the 
end or thi.* limb a trout — a Dig one weighing a pound or 
more — hung suspended by a short piece of line. The 
Doctor hud freed anoth'^T tislr. and evidently did not 
.intend to lose this ojie-. 
-So intent was he on his occupation that he was totally 
oblivious of his surroundings, so I concealed myself in 
the hushes and awaited developments. The further out 
on the limb he got the more precarious became his 
position, which fact he dfd not seern to realize, all his 
.thoughts being centered on the trout. 
.^.nd then something seemed to attract his attention 
down stream., lor he suddenly paused, and craning his 
neck to one side, peered through the leaves. Evidently 
what he saw did not fill his soul with gladness, for he 
settled back on the limb and made him.self as small as 
possible and kept very still. At the same moinent I 
heard ,the sound of footsteps, and the next instant 1 
caught the glint of a rod as the slender tip flashed back 
and forth through the air, and then a fluffy, tempting fly 
settled lightly on the water in just the right spot, and 
\vas drawn skillfully along the surface. It was q h^au- 
tiful cast. 
"That must be Jack," was my inward comment. Again 
the rod flashed, and again the fly, btit this time one of a 
dilTerent color, struck the water. It was all in vain, 
though. No big lunker rose to the alluring bait, and I 
could imagine Jack's rage and chagrin. He soon ap- 
peared, working his way warily along. 
"What a place for a trotit," he murmured softly to 
■ hinjself. "W^onder if Joe or- any. one else has tried it 
■yet. Guess not, or they'd have mentioned it. Don't 
unde'rstand why I don't .get a strike, though." 
■ I was enjoying the situation immensely. I always do 
when I alone have the key to a situation. The Doctor, 
..judging by his expression, ■ was mortally anxious lest 
Jack shoiild discover his presence up the tree. For once 
in his life he was content to remain a silent and inactive 
spectator on the scene. ■ He knew ftfll well how Jacl^ 
would revel in the discovery and make sport of him. 
But, for the nonce. Jack's whole attention was centered 
on the pool, and the capture of the trout lurking in its 
depths. ■ .- " . 
A slight filstlitag in the beech tree caused me to look up. 
and I saw that the denouement was about to take place. 
The Doctor was ■ beginning to slide. The thought of 
the. trout had overcome his fear of Jack's ridicule, and he 
. had made a last despennte attempt to gain possession 
of the fish, but had overbalanced himself and it was all 
up 'with him. AVitli a yell that awoke the echos of the 
place, and eve-n startled me — though half expecting it— 
the Doctor descended with a rush. He struck the water 
vvith a loud splash in tlxe very spot and at the same in- 
sitant that Jack's fly laiided gracefully on the surface of 
the pool. . 
Probably no angler eyer met with quite so great a 
surprise as was accorded to Jack at that moment. It is 
not much to his discredit to say that he was badly 
scared. 'Twas hh "not to reason why," and he bolted up 
the high bank without once looking behind him, nor 
paused until he reached the top. Here he turned and 
glanced back.' Not seeing a paftther nor a roj^al Bengal 
iiger in pursuit he haueu in his fitad thght. The sound 
of a great commotion and splashing down in the pool 
reached his ears, and' he judged it expedient to hold 
himself aloof and- a>vait Jevelopm.ents-. ; 
In the meantime .-the Doctor was doing his best to • 
drown. The water was not over his head, save in one 
spot, and- he insisted upon sticking in this particular 
spot. I waded in and caught him by a wavlhg arm and 
dragged him to the- bank, where the water' was drily two 
or three feet deep, and then withdrew to a distance and 
waited for the outcome. I knew that in hiS befuddled 
sta.te of mind he would not recognize, me. He soon 
found his breath, and his frantic cries for help'brought 
Jack to his senses, and he came leaping and sliding down 
the bank into the stream, and hauled the Doctor ashore 
all in a moment." 
When the latter had partially recovered from the eft'ects 
of his immersion, T arrived on the scene all out of breath, 
and demanded explanations. The Doctor was growing- 
profuse in his thanks to Jack, and Jack was trying to 
look as though he did not feel like a hero, but with poor 
success. - 
"It's nothing. Nothing at all, I tell you," he kept 
reiterating, throwing out his chest. "You would do the 
same for me any day. I consider it lucky that T was 
around to .save you." 
"But how did it all happen, and what's the trouble, 
anyhow?'" I inquired. , 
"Well, as for me," said Jack, "I was fishing in the pool 
there, when all of a sudden, just as I made a cast, some- 
thing came flying through space and landed square on 
my fly with a yell that wquld have startled steadier nerves 
than mine. I confess that for a moment I was a trifle 
upset, btit the cause of all the trouble soon dissolved 
itself into the Doctor, here, and as he seemed in danger 
of drowning I hauled him" out. But what I don't under- 
stand is where he came from. Where did you come from, 
anyhow?" he asked, turning to the, Doctor. 
The Doctor looked painfully embarrassed, and was 
seized with an attack of coughing. W^e slapped him on 
the back, and then Jack put his question again: 
"Where did you come froin?" 
"Oh. I just fell in," the Doctor replied, with a weak 
smile. "We'd better be moving on ar I'll be catching 
cold." • 
"But where did you fail frbm?'^ jack persisted. 
"Down the bank. I suppose,'" I suggested, not wishing 
Jack to have everything his own way. "From the looks 
of the ground somebody or soroethmg has gone up and . 
down there in a great hurry." 
jack's yearning for information suddenly vanished. 
"If I were you." he said to the Doctor, "I would be 
moving about. You're apt to catch cold if you sit around 
in t^hose wet., .clothes. I kno^^ a fellow that caught 
pneiimonia in that way and nearly died." 
"And then, they talked of other things."" I 'murrhured 
as I picked lip my rod arid started on dowri'tHe stream. 
.\s T left them I .hea'rd the Doctor remark that he' 'had 
broken his rod. and so would' not fish any more that 
day. but Avould return to camp and get on some drv . 
clothes. 
