stringing us and thinks he can get away with it- 
For whoever saw a fish take a bait when they’re 
playing on the surface like this—and not a ripple 
to hide our motions! He knows they won’t take 
the frogs, and so, we can’t prove that they’re 
not bass.” 
“You gwan do what 1 tell ye,” he insisted, 
indignantly, “or I’ll throw yer both in the lake. 
You’re gwine ter see stimthin’ ye hain’t never 
seen before.” 
Its useless to try reason on a pig-headed old 
party like that, so as the first break was on my 
side of the boat, not 30 feet away, I dropped 
my frog into it before the circle was three feet 
in diameter, and then the unbelievable thing 
happened. There was a swift sarie and the line 
came taut. Just giving the first the bend of the 
tip, I twitched and struck the hook home. Whoop 
la! out comes a small mouth of a pound and a 
half all bristling! 
“Haw, haw!” laughed the old “sun fish 
guide,” as he loves to call himself, “perch, 
be they! Won’t take the frogs, eh?” 
The fish was boring for the bottom 
after two or three husky leaps and rush¬ 
es, and he threatened to get into tfhe grass 
which existed over the entire bay in great 
patches, broken here and there by hedges 
of rocks. 
“Hold him up tihar. Keep ’em out th’ 
grass, I won’t have yer tearin’ up all the 
hay' in this here bay field o’ mine!” 
By this time Bil was into one—a two 
pound big mouth. I was glad of this for 
then Bill had to withstand the batteries 
of old Jud’s decision. And he was un¬ 
merciful. 
“Yer better go back to Noo Yawk an’ 
read summore o’ them printed books 
about bass fishin’. I’ a showin’ ye sum- 
thin’ ye haint never seen before. We 
helped ter build this here lake an’ we 
poipTated with bass. We know ’em all 
bv their first names. I an’ Charlie do. 
This here is where the blacks an’ o'swee’s 
hold their fall commotion and wind it up 
with a barbey cue. See them ‘an brown 
flies there. The’s a hatch on all over this 
bay. Them flies come to the top and 
float around till their wings stiffen up ef 
the ole bass don’t git ’em fust. I an’ Charlie owns 
that ’ar hay field down thar on the bottom and we 
let them insecks use it fur bredin’ pupposes with¬ 
out chargin’ ’em any rent jist so’s our bass 
kin have a good time once a year in the fall. 
T got a tellygraf deespatch that the flies was a 
coinin’ up this afternoon an’ I knowed the bass 
proper ’ud be here to the party. That’s why I 
fetched you two fellers up to see the fun.” 
Certainly there was something uncanny about 
Jud. He seemed to be fully informed upon all 
that was transpiring in the depths of the lake 
as well as along the secret aisles of the forest. 
He was on intimate terms with all the wild 
people and understood their languages and lives. 
Where the eye could not trace he sent his mind 
and brought back the news to put into his own 
picturesque words. To one appreciating his 
style he was and is the most vivid of word 
painters but that appreciation comes only to 
those whose hearts are en rapport with Jud’s. 
In proof of the clarity of his mind’s eye take 
this. Along in the afternoon after Bill had arisen 
several times to admit my fish to the fish can 
FOREST AND STREAM 
and a few times for his own—for I was squar¬ 
ing the morning’s account beautifully—we heard 
a small dog yapping away excitedly over on the 
thickly wooded point to the east which lay be¬ 
tween the bay and the main arm of the lake. In 
a few moments a shot rang out and then another 
sent its echo ringing through the hills. To me 
it sounded exactly as though a little terrier had 
treed a partridge or two and they had fallen to 
the gun. I said so. 
“I dunno,” spake the sage, “I don’t calclate 
them shot was at no partridge.” 
We were too busy with the fish to argue and 
the subject was dropped. Drifting slowly about 
the bay, a stroke now and then by an oar, we 
were picking out our breaks as a sharpshooter 
picks his mark. When one came within casting 
range we fired if it looked like a sizable fish. If 
not, we drifted on. At least three times out of 
five the fish having taken the living insect would 
“There Lay a Handsome Buck.” 
turn to the little frog. Big mouths and smaller 
mouths came indiscriminately to the bait. By 
giving close attention to the swirls we took no 
fish under size. When the round ball, which was 
the sun, approached the hill tops, we turned 
toward home with nineteen fish, fourteen of 
which fell to my rod and five to Bill’s, as Jud 
had gamely refrained from wetting his line. 
“Naw, naw,” he protested, “ye’ll git too many 
as ’tis. I haint gointer fish.” 
As we left the bay I got out the camera. The 
great round ball behind the mists, that was the 
sun, was near the hill tops. Its shimmer on the 
surface was broken by the ripples of our prog¬ 
ress. Astern a fish broke. I got the circle into 
focus and just as the shutter snapped he broke 
again right in the center of the first widening 
circle. Jud went to the oars and we swished on¬ 
ward. A great contentment filled my heathen 
•soul. I was gloating over the revenge to be mine 
when I got Bill to the supper table. The whole 
hunt—the guns and the ladies—were to under¬ 
stand I had beaten Bill 14 to 5- Jud’s loving 
josh went off like water from a duck’s back as 
87 
he plied the oars with his untiring strength for 
we had two miles to go. Bill was feeling fine, 
also, having no idea of my intentions, but he 
wouldn’t have worried, anyway. It was dark 
when we reached the hotel and supper was on. 
But the folks left the table to admire the fish 
as we weighed them and received congratula¬ 
tions. They tipped the scales at 39 pounds. 
Our toilet was a lick and a promise for we 
were hungry and I was in a hurry to put Bill 
on the gridiron. Just as the fire was burning 
bi ightly and expectantly under my poking, refer¬ 
ences to the morning’s work and a few reminders 
of the way Bill had rubbed it into me at dinner 
and I was about to lay him on iron to sizzle, the 
rattle of a buck-board was heard and the next 
minute Uncle Willie, the landlord, poked bis head 
into the dining room and broke up supper the 
second time. 
“If you’d like to see a fine buck,” he said, 
“come outside. One of the boys from 
Grassville 'has brought in a dandy.” 
Right there Bill slipped off the book. I 
know in my heart I’d never be able to 
work up the right interest in what I had 
up my sleeve for him after that buck 
arrived, and meekly I followed the rush 
out to the lawn. There laid as hand¬ 
some a buck as one would want to see 
through the sights of a Winchester. In 
his neck were the marks of a charge of 
buckshot and in the white spot below 
was the hole of a bullet. 
“Where’d you get him, Rube?” we 
asked. 
“Up on the point across from Wolf 
Rock. Smith Persons and I saw where 
he went into the lake this morning and 
we went over this afternoon an’ got 
him. When we jumped him he came 
right toward us. I give him one barrel 
o’ buckshot and he kept on a cornin’. 
Smith stopped him with a rifle bullet.” 
“We heard it all! We were up in the 
bay fishing. We heard the dog when he 
started and then the shots came! We 
thought somebody’d got a partridge, but 
[ud didn’t.” 
“Huh! that wasn’t our dog. That was 
Dorsett’s dog and he did have a partridge 
up a tree. He was behind the deer and that was 
why he came toward us.” 
“Thar ye be!” chimed in Jud. “I didn’t think 
them shots was at no partridge.” 
Well, why didn’t he? 
The following bulletin was issued recently by 
George A. Lawyer, president of the New York 
State Forest, Fish and Game League: 
“In view of the unusually heavy snowstorm, 
something must be done for the protection of 
the pheasants put out or they will perish. Usually 
the winter approaches so gradually that they 
accustom themselves to getting a supply of food 
from barnyard stacks or otherwise. This year it 
has come too quickly and too severely to give 
them any opportunity for this. 
“Refuges, like empty boxes, should be set on 
the southerly side of natural wind-breaks. If 
refuges have already been placed, they should 
be visited to see that they are not blocked with 
snow. The birds are hardy enough to stand our 
winters if they can get food and protection from 
the wind.” 
