Tales and Trails of WakarusaHarvey, Alexander Miller
Philosophy
Tales and Trails of Wakarusa
Harvey, Alexander Miller
Wakarusa River Valley (Kan.)
One morning in early June a ten-year-old lad, having been given a
half-holiday, dug a fine mess of luscious worms, put them in a tin
can with plenty of good dirt, and started off up Berry Creek to fish
for bullheads and sunfish. He went through the papaw patch and cut a
nice long pole, and took time to fix his line on it in good shape,
and to see that his cork, sinker, and hook were all right. He then
went on through the woods, crossed the big ravines, and climbed
around the rocky cliffs, making his way to the spot designated among
the boys as the "bullhead hole." This was and is the best place on
earth to fish for bullheads, and the boy knew it, and it was there he
wanted to commence the day's sport. Finally he climbed over the last
ledge, forced his way through the brush and came in sight of his
favorite place, and, to his astonishment, he found an aged,
peculiar looking man sitting under the old sycamore tree in the very
spot where he had planned to be. He walked slowly up to a place as
near the old man as good manners would permit, unwound his line and
put on a good lively worm and commenced.
The old man paid no attention to him whatever, and, on watching
him closely, the boy noticed that he was fishing for minnows with a
pin-hook fastened to a thread, and this tied to a crooked stick. He
put the minnows he caught into a tin bucket which was sitting at his
feet, partially full of water. As soon as the boy noticed what he was
doing, he set his pole and went up to him and offered to take off his
shirt and help him seine for minnows with it. The old man looked up
and said:
"Boy, I wouldn't fish with minnows caught with the best seine on
earth. Your shirt wouldn't be much account as a seine; and anyway,
they're never big enough. I am on my way to Wakarusa, and I want some
good, strong, live minnows. A man who fishes with seined minnows is
no account. More than that, you have no business to get your shirt
wet. You tend to your fishin' and I'll tend to mine. Andrew Jackson
said he knew a man who got rich tending to his own business."
This was a good deal of a bluff for the boy, and he proceeded as had
been suggested, and "tended to his own business." It was a good
morning for bullheads, and he soon got their range and commenced
catching them. In fact, they were biting so well that he didn't stop
to string any of those he caught, but threw them back on the bank;
and just to see to it that the stranger did not forget he was there,
he usually threw them toward the foot of the sycamore tree.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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