There is no use in taking time to explain to any fisherman who has read thus far that Dannie, the patient; Dannie, the long-suffering, felt abused. How would you feel yourself? "The Thread Man might have sent twa," was his thought. "The only decent treatment he got that nicht was frae me, and if I'd let Jimmy hit him, he'd gone through the wall. But there never is anything fra me!" And that was true. There never was. Aloud he said, "Dinna bother to hunt the steelyards, Mary. We winna weigh it until he brings it home." "Yes, and by gum, I'll bring it with this! Look, here is a picture of a man in a boat, pullin' in a whale with a pole just like this," bragged Jimmy. "Yes," said Dannie. "That's what it's made for. A boat and open water. If ye are going to fish wi' that thing along the river we'll have to cut doon all the trees, and that will dry up the water. That's na for river fishing." Jimmy was intently studying the book. Mary tried to take the rod from his hand. "Let be!" he cried, hanging on. "You'll break it!" "I guess steel don't break so easy," she said aggrievedly. "I just wanted to 'heft' it." "Light as a feather," boasted Jimmy. "Fish all day and it won't tire a man at all. Done--unjoint it and put it in its case, and not go dragging up everything along the bank like a living stump-puller. This book says this line will bear twinty pounds pressure, and sometimes it's takin' an hour to tire out a fish, if it's a fighter. I bet you the Black Bass is a fighter, from what we know of him." "Ye can watch me land him and see what ye think about it," suggested Dannie. Jimmy held the book with one hand and lightly waved the rod with the other, in a way that would have developed nerves in an Indian. He laughed absently. "With me shootin' bait all over his pool with this?" he asked. "I guess not!" "But you can't fish for the Bass with that, Jimmy Malone," cried Mary hotly. "You agreed to fish fair for the Bass, and it wouldn't be fair for you to use that, whin Dannie only has his old cane pole. Dannie, get you a steel pole, too," she begged. "If Jimmy is going to fish with that, there will be all the more glory in taking the Bass from him with the pole I have," answered Dannie. "You keep out," cried Jimmy angrily to Mary. "It was a fair bargain. He made it himself. Each man was to fish surface or deep, and with his own pole and bait. I guess this IS my pole, ain't it?" "Yes," said Mary. "But it wasn't yours whin you made that agreemint. You very well know Dannie expected you to fish with the same kind of pole and bait that he did; didn't you, Dannie?"