Part 17 (1/2)
Chapter VIII
WHEN THE BLACK Ba.s.s STRUCK
”Lots of fish down in the brook, All you need is a rod, and a line, and a hook,”
hummed Jimmy, still lovingly fingering his possessions.
”Did Dannie iver say a thing like that to you before?” asked Mary.
”Oh, he's dead sore,” explained Jimmy. ”He thinks he should have had a jinted rod, too.”
”And so he had,” replied Mary. ”You said yoursilf that you might have killed that man if Dannie hadn't showed you that you were wrong.”
”You must think stuff like this is got at the tin-cint store,” said Jimmy.
”Oh, no I don't!” said Mary. ”I expect it cost three or four dollars.”
”Three or four dollars,” sneered Jimmy. ”All the sinse a woman has!
Feast your eyes on this book and rade that just this little reel alone cost fifteen, and there's no telling what the rod is worth. Why it's turned right out of pure steel, same as if it were wood. Look for yoursilf.”
”Thanks, no! I'm afraid to touch it,” said Mary.
”Oh, you are sore too!” laughed Jimmy. ”With all that money in it, I should think you could see why I wouldn't want it broke.”
”You've sat there and whipped it around for an hour. Would it break it for me or Dannie to do the same thing? If it had been his, you'd have had a worm on it and been down to the river trying it for him by now.”
”Worm!” scoffed Jimmy. ”A worm! That's a good one! Idjit! You don't fish with worms with a jinted rod.”
”Well what do you fish with? Humming birds?”
”No. You fish with--” Jimmy stopped and eyed Mary dubiously. ”You fish with a lot of things,” he continued. ”Some of thim come in little books and they look like moths, and some like snake-faders, and some of them are buck-tail and bits of tin, painted to look s.h.i.+ny. Once there was a man in town who had a minnie made of rubber and all painted up just like life. There were hooks on its head, and on its back, and its belly, and its tail, so's that if a fish snapped at it anywhere it got hooked.”
”I should say so!” exclaimed Mary. ”It's no fair way to fish, to use more than one hook. You might just as well take a net and wade in and seine out the fish as to take a lot of hooks and rake thim out.”
”Well, who's going to take a lot of hooks and rake thim out?”
”I didn't say anybody was. I was just saying it wouldn't be fair to the fish if they did.”
”Course I wouldn't fish with no riggin' like that, when Dannie only has one old hook. Whin we fish for the Ba.s.s, I won't use but one hook either. All the same, I'm going to have some of those fancy baits. I'm going to get Jim Skeels at the drug store to order thim for me. I know just how you do,” said Jimmy flouris.h.i.+ng the rod. ”You put on your bait and quite a heavy sinker, and you wind it up to the ind of your rod, and thin you stand up in your boat----”
”Stand up in your boat!”
”I wish you'd let me finis.h.!.+--or on the bank, and you take this little whipper-snapper, and you touch the spot on the reel that relases the thrid, and you give the rod a little toss, aisy as throwin' away chips, and off maybe fifty feet your bait hits the water, 'spat!' and 'snap!'
goes Mr. Ba.s.s, and 'stick!' goes the hook. See?”
”What I see is that if you want to fish that way in the Wabash, you'll have to wait until the dredge goes through and they make a ca.n.a.l out of it; for be the time you'd throwed fifty feet, and your fish had run another fifty, there'd be just one hundred snags, and logs, and stumps between you; one for every foot of the way. It must look pretty on deep water, where it can be done right, but I bet anything that if you go to fooling with that on our river, Dannie gets the Ba.s.s.”
”Not much, Dannie don't 'gets the Ba.s.s,'” said Jimmy confidently. ”Just you come out here and let me show you how this works. Now you see, I put me sinker on the ind of the thrid, no hook of course, for practice, and I touch this little spring here, and give me little rod a whip and away goes me bait, slick as grase. Mr. Ba.s.s is layin' in thim ba.s.s weeds right out there, foreninst the pie-plant bed, and the bait strikes the water at the idge, see! and 'snap,' he takes it and sails off slow, to swally it at leisure. Here's where I don't pull a morsel.
Jist let him rin and swally, and whin me line is well out and he has me bait all digistid, 'yank,' I give him the round-up, and THIN, the fun begins. He leps clear of the water and I see he's tin pound. If he rins from me, I give him rope, and if he rins to, I dig in, workin' me little machane for dear life to take up the thrid before it slacks.
Whin he sees me, he makes a dash back, and I just got to relase me line and let him go, because he'd bust this little silk thrid all to thunder if I tried to force him onpleasant to his intintions, and so we kape it up until he's plum wore out and comes a promenadin' up to me boat, bank I mane, and I scoops him in, and that's sport, Mary! That's MAN'S fis.h.i.+n'! Now watch! He's in thim ba.s.s weeds before the pie-plant, like I said, and I'm here on the bank, and I THINK he's there, so I give me little jinted rod a whip and a swing----”