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Show A BAUOAin til UttA!i3. Dow Dr. Tompkins Found Halt J" nonet) to 1'Uli (or llii.ts All Ills Lire. "Hike to do a little ilack bass fishing fish-ing now and tlien," said Dr. Tompkina, of Penn Yan, "but I'm not one of thoso enthusiastic people who can't get along without it. Tho other day, though, a friend of mine came in with a fine catch of bass, and the sight of them rather put Bio in th humor of going out and get ting a lot myself. "What did you catch 'era with?" 1 asked my friend. "Crabs," he said. "Wo call crawfish 'crabs' in Penn Yan. I had heard before that crabs were good bait for black basg, and thinking think-ing that I might get somo fun out of them as well as anybody else I went over to Lake Keuka outlet to bait. I banged around in tho creek for three hours turning up stones and slopping about in the water knee deep, and succeeded suc-ceeded in capturing five little crabs. " 'Well,' I said to myself, 'that isn't a very big lot of bait to start on a day's ' fishing with, but I guess I won't have any trouble getting two or three nice j bass, anyhow.' i "I was about leaving the creek when I I met a small boy. lie was a Peun Yan small boy and he had nerve, and he . hailed me familiarly and said: " 'Hullo, mister. What you after? " "I told him I was gathering crabs for ' Alait, but that they were powerful scarce. ' " 'What'll you give me to get you gome?' inquired the small boy. "I thought it would be a nice thing to have a couple of dozen or so of crabs, for I'd want to le going out after more bass ; the next day, and knowing what a tough ' and tedious time I'd h&d getting only five, I thought I'd make it worth the boy's while spending a day tugging and sweating sweat-ing among the stones, and so I said I'd give him five cents apiece for crabs. i " 'How many '11 1 git you?' he asked. " 'Oh, all you can,' I replied, feeling that all he could get would certainly be few enough. I '"All right!' he said, and I went up the lake a mile or so with my five crabs to get some bass for my supper. I fished all the rest of the day and never got as much as a bite. It was supper time when I pulled for homo. " 'The next man that says crabs to me,' I said to myself, 'it won't go well with.' "After supper I was sitting in my office, feeling a little sore yet over my day's fishing, when a knock camo to the door. I opened it, and thero stood the email boy I had hired to gather crabs for ; me. I had forgotten all about him. " 'Hullo, mister!" he said. 'I got 1 some!' ' (fVnla wpTfl ihpi vprv bit. tiling T waa , 1 hankering after just then, but of course a bargain was a bargain. " "All right,' 1 said. 'Fetch 'em in.' "The small boy stepped aside and immediately im-mediately appeared again, accompanied by another small boy. Each boy lugged ii) a big tobacco pail. Each pail was filled with crabs. " 'Great heayens!' I exclaimed. 'Flow many haye you got?' "'There's two t housan', mister,' said the small boy I had bargained with. ''But we'd 'a' got a lot more if tho pails had been bigger.' "Two thousand crabs! If you'll take the trouble to figuro on that you'll find that at five cents apieco 2,000 crabs will come to just an even $100, and that was the price per crab I had bound myself to pay. While those boys had nerve I've an idea that their ideas of financiering were crude, for after some exceedingly anxious and apprehensive argument with them I induced them to compromise on a basis of labor by tho day, and even then they mado such a good thing out of me that the next man who mentions crabs to me will stand an excellent chance of having the price of that day's work taken out of his hide. I returned those crabs to Keuka outlet, and any one who wants to may go thero and catch them if they can." Louisville Post. |
