Days in the OpenCrandall, Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus)
General
Days in the Open
Crandall, Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus)
Fishing
We cannot follow him all through his eventful pilgrimage, but there is
one experience that must not go unrecorded. In a tangle of brush formed
by a tree-top which has fallen into a deep place in the stream he spies
an open space, possibly eighteen inches in diameter, where the water is
covered with scum and foam. Just the place for a big trout, but there
is no way of getting even his short pole through the brush. The line is
untied, and he goes crawling out on a limb that hangs over the brook,
and sits, at last, astride it and directly above the enticing spot.
A fresh and exceedingly fat angleworm is looped upon the hook and the
wriggling mass is cautiously dropped into the middle of the scum. It
has no sooner touched the water than there is a sharp tug and a mighty
swirl, but only the hook and the remainders of the worm come back in
answer to his pull. Another bait, and again the hook is lowered into the
pool. No, the old fellow was not pricked the first time, for here he is
again and this time firmly hooked. To balance the body on the limb when
both hands are employed in tugging on the line, is no easy task, but
at last the trout is in his hands and hugged to his breast. With the
fingers of one hand through his gills and the thumb among the sharp
teeth of the fish’s mouth, the slow journey is made back to the shore.
Glory enough for one day! The prize measures about twelve inches and is
thick through. Edwin Crumb’s trout is beaten with room to spare.
But now it dawns upon the boy that he has been gone a long time, and if
he hopes to be permitted to repeat this trip he must hurry home. He
also becomes acutely conscious of an awful vacuum in the region of
his stomach which even crinkle-root and ground-nuts will not fill. He
reasons with himself that he can reach home more quickly by striking
through the woods to the road than by retracing his way along the brook.
He is very sure that he knows the way, but his certitude evaporates
steadily as he plunges his way through the woods. Just when he admits to
himself that he has no idea in which direction the road lies, he emerges
into a clearing and sees before him a group of farm buildings. They
are certainly unfamiliar; but some one must live here and he can get
directions as to his shortest way home. Who is that in the doorway? It
cannot be Mrs. Woodman whose home is only a short half-mile from his
own? But it is, and, to make his joy complete, this is baking-day and
the good woman hands him out an apple turnover. All turnovers are good,
but that one was far and away the best ever baked. A hungry boy and an
apple turnover form a great combination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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