southwestern horizon, the wind was 
still, and the lake was a sheet of glass. 
From the boat, the little log house in 
the middle of the grove of small, 
straight oaks, with the smoke rising 
from the clay chimney, looked pic- 
turesque and comfortable. What a 
home it would make for a sturdy family 
that enjoyed isolation and the great 
outdoors! Their nearest neighbors 
would be fully a dozen miles away. 
_ The family would have this beautiful 
lake, its wooded shores and the sur- 
rounding prairie all to themselves. 
HERE would be fishing, boating 
and swimming in summer, hunting 
in spring and fall and skating and 
trapping in winter. It would be a 
great playground in which boys would 
grow into strong, resourceful men and 
girls into healthy, 
broad-minded women. 
Their world would be 
bounded by a wide hori- 
zon. Only when the 
northern blizzard raged 
would they be shut in. 
They would know beau- 
tiful dawns and sun- 
sets, the radiance of a 
full moon on lake and 
prairie and the splen- 
dor of myriads of stars 
in a vast expanse of 
sky. They would be- 
come accustomed to the 
hooting of owls and 
the howling of wolves, 
and all the noises made 
by the waterfowl] would 
be familiar sounds to 
them. A heavy tug on 
the line interrupted my 
- pleasant reflections and 
a big bass leaped into 
the ..air some _ forty 
yards behind the mov- 
ing boat. I pulled it in 
hand over hand, killed it and dropped 
it into the stern. It was a good four- 
pounder and with the fat Mallard 
would supply even our keen appetites 
with a hearty meal. 
HE three days that followed were 
warm and pleasant. While Koer- 
ner and Hope hunted industriously 
from dawn to dark at distant points 
on the lake, I stayed nearer home and 
made hunting a rather incidental mat- 
ter. There was so much that was new 
to me that there were no dull hours. 
In a piece of woods not far from the 
log house I discovered that there were 
some ruffed grouse and many fox squir- 
rels. Ruffed grouse I knew well but 
these big gray and brown squirrels I 
had never seen before. The three that 
I killed for a pot pie and for their 
skins were so heavy that they fell out 
of the trees like cats when shot. 
@©* an excursion out on the prairie 
I was so fortunate as to kill three 
mallards out of a flock of nearly thirty 
that rose with great clamor from a 
small slough. Two of the birds were 
drakes in fine plumage. I spent some 
time in admiring their beautiful green 
heads, white banded necks and speckled 
gray bodies. I also killed two pin- 
nated grouse from a flock that I almost 
walked over in some tall grass. The 
flock rose all around me and before 
they got too far away I had recovered 
sufficiently to bring down a bird with 
each barrel. I had never before in 
my life made a double on grouse and 
I was much elated with my success. 
This hunting alone on the prairie was 
Fe ie gh Se 
* 
th 
he 
hd 
* 

ie 
Sass IRE opposite end of the lake where Karonis apparently had both its 
inlet and outlet.” 
a continuous delight to me. The com- 
fortable walking on the soft brown 
grass, up and down the easy slopes, 
robbed the hunting of its usual ar- 
duous labor. 
HEN there was the unobstructed 
view that brought all flying game 
into such plain sight for my indiffer- 
ent shooting and, as if to make of hunt- 
ing a perfect thing, there was the lim- 
itless prairie with the spacious sky 
above it and the bracing air blowing 
across it. I found my spirits so high 
that it was not easy for me to keep 
from shouting out my pleasure. 
During the three mild days I also 
spent much time on the shore of the 
lake. There I occasionally killed a 
duck that rose from the reeds near the 
shore and flew straight away from me. 
Le Ae * 
ced 
#2 ‘ 
ES, 
eae 
* 
; x 
Generally it was such an easy shot 
that I could not miss it. At one place 
on the lake I found a large, dense bed 
of tall wild rice, a grain with which 
I had little acquaintance. This bed of 
rice was a favorite feeding place for 
ducks, and I might have shot many of 
them there if Drop had been with me 
to recover them. But to kill or cripple 
a duck out of reach only to let it lie 
was poor sport. I much preferred to 
watch the ducks breaking down the 
rice and feeding on it. The patch was 
more than an acre in extent and the 
good crop of smooth brown seeds would 
feed many ducks. 
NE afternoon I abandoned the 
hunting for a bit of fishing. With 
a strong pole, cut near the shore, and 
a piece of one of the trolling lines, I 
caught a pickerel of 
about two pounds. 
Then I cut of the shiny 
white belly of the pick- 
erel, shaped it into 
some resemblance of a 
frog and attached it 
to the gang of hooks. 
With this as a lure, I 
began trolling near 
where a small stream 
entered the lake. In a 
few minutes a great 
pickerel rose out of 
the deep water and 
took my bait with a 
savage jerk. The fish 
then sank to the bot- 
tom and I waited with 
all the patience I could 
command. When I be- 
lieved that the hooks 
and bait were well 
gorged, I struck. At 
once the fish began to 
move off across the 
mouth of the stream. 
To follow it I must go 
into mud and water to my arm pits. 
I braced myself and with a stout pull 
turned the fish. My tackle was too 
heavy and strong to be broken and the 
contest lay between the fish and me. 
For more than twenty minutes we 
fought back and forth along a stretch 
of hard beach where I had firm foot- 
ing. Finally the fish weakened and I 
dragged it out. It was nearly a yard 
in length and must have weighed more 
than a dozen pounds. I had never be- 
fore caught a fish half so large. 



a 
. 

Hon as moss agates among the 
white pebbles on the beach occu- 
pied more of my time along the lake 
than did either the shooting or the fish- 
ing. It was a leisurely occupation that 
gave me much time to watch my sur- 
(Continued on page 616) 
603 
