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Show p3vrr "FT 1 J tyi" j Sewell Ford 1 1 unorty and .tne r isnnound -" 1 II I l in i ii i in i ii ii i i in in i ii i i i ib Mmamm H W .'IUUJWWWIW WtJI I ! WE 'D just picked up the Xick Rcyces at the station and had dropped 'em at their cute lit-; lit-; tie stucco bungalow" on the Post read the one with the copper igreen shutters and all the window j boxes. They're our newly-wed neigh bors, you know, who are startin ' their 1 career of married bliss with eight-cylin- l der tastes aDd a flivver income. Up ! to date they haven't even acquired a flivver, so whenever we get the chance i we decoy 'em in with us for a ride. ! You would, if you knew Xick Koyce ! or Phyllis. They 're that kind. Don't J make 'em any nicer. Xiek, he's one of these big. blue-eyed, pink-cheeked i youug busks with a smile like sunny ! days. And Phyllis well, she always reminds me of a long-stemmed English violet, just picked, with the dew still on. You know? Some eouple, I'll say. 1 So I don't quite get what ilrs. JIc- Cabe is drivin ' at when she lets loose a sigh, after we've rolled du, and remarks re-marks mournful: "Isn't it a shame, Shorty?" . "Eh?" says I, makin' the turn into 1ho shore road, and then glauein' at her puzzled. . "The way he treats Phyllis," she goes on. "You mean not buyin ' her a chummy roadster and lettin' her struggle along ! with only one maid?'' says J. ' ''Stupid!" says Sadie. "Of -course J rot. I don't suppose he told you what i he was goiug to do next?" I "I don't remember bis makin' any ! awful threat,"' says I. ''What is it?" j "He's going to take her on another ; fishing trip," says Sadie. I I expect I chuckled some at that. J The female mind can take some curious j quirks, can't it? "Oh, well," says I, ; "that's Nick's failin'. you know, this i fifhin' bug of bis." " I "I oulv wish I had known of it in 0 "And y.e're s"oini 0 ha-a JiurV-- ,.x? ; " f ; mounted fo tanj oven th& "ass; ZZS'X living rcoifc fireplace. Je vou meant business, this time. Goin ' to hold one in each hand and another between be-tween ycur teeth, eh?" Nick explains that one is for flv cast-in', cast-in', another for still fishin', and the third for trolliu". But say, when I glances at the price tags on some of 'em has to gasp. Take it from me, thev don't gie those things away. Why. one cost as much as I pay for a new automobile casing. Then there was other tackle; silk lines of different sizes, and more kinds of bait than I e er knew existed; wierd lookin' things made out of red flannel and feathers; nickel-plated spiuners and spoons, with little hooks all over 'em; artificial minnows, painted up natural as life and then some; pickled minnows in glass jars; rubber water bugs, and I don -t know what else. ' ' Y'ou sure mean to feed 'em fancy," says I. "Must have near $-5 worth of bait here. "T suppose so." admits Nick. "One must have the right kind, though, and they tell me all these things have about doubled in price receutlv." "The high cost of fishin' eh?" S3 vs I. " Behold." says Phyllis, pretendin' to pout, "my new evening dress!" And she points to the collection. "But just think of the four-pound bass we're goiug to land." says Nick. "Suppose vou don't get any, after all?" savs L "Oh. I'll get 'em," says be. waggin' his hpad confident. "How about, you?" T asks Phyllis. "You goin' after 'em, too?" "No." says Phyllis. "I shall try to keel the canoe from upsetting, or stay in the camp and rest. Nick does all the fishing, you know-." She don't say it eomplalnin'. you understand, but gazes admirin' at Nick all the while. And he never seems to get the idea at all that there's anything selfish about the proposition. So I gives him another jab. I Well, we framed it up. Brick Hartley ' agreed to have Denicker on the job the foliowin ' fcundav, and ali i had to do was to pass the word confidential to ! Nick about how I'd heard of this pond j that was fust seethin' with big pickerel achio ' to' be caught. Course, Nick fell ror , , , ,,Tl. , .,, I "Bv George! says be. ."That will give me a chance to try out some of my new tackle. How would you Hie to go along, Shortv?" "Well, if you'll show- me how it's done." savs I. ' maybe I will." Y'es. we went. Nick was bustin' with enthusiasm. Just the right kind of a dav for pickerel fishin', he declares, it , being cloudv and still. And he's invested in-vested $5 in a dozen froglees. besides buyin ' some more kinds of spinners and things. Also, when we gets to the pond, he allows that them patches of lily pads and eel grass must be just thick with pickerel. 1 must sav, too. that he goes at it scientific. The wav he could throw that bait out and skitter it afong on the top was worth watchiu'. You'd think if there was fish there they'd just naturally nat-urally climb out and grab hold. Somehow, Some-how, though, they didn't. For two hours or more he thrashes around on the edge of the lily pads, first in one place and then in another, without gct-tin' gct-tin' so much as a nibble. Jt begun to drizzle, too. which, Nick says, is exactly the kind of weather for pickerel fishin'. Still, he has no luck. As for me, 1 'd quit after the first half hour and was i rowin ' the boat around and tryin' to keep dry. "Ain't that another party down in that cove ? ' ' says I. "You're right," savs Nick. "And I believe he "s Oh. I say! Did vou see the whopper he pulled in then?" I "Why." says I. "that must be old j Doc Denicker. Suppose we edge down that way. ' ' Which we did. We edged nearer and nearer, although Nick sys it ain't strictly etiquette. But our poor luck holds, and v-ry once in a while Denicker Den-icker would haul out another big one. Nick passes out to me all the alibis he has in stock, be changes his ba:t. and he skitters as skillful as he 'rnows Low. But nothing happens in the wav of fish. "I thought vou was a fisherman, Nick?" says I. "Hang it a'u! " sav, he: "T thought so, too. Must have the only good spot in the lake. " ' ' Wf '11 fix that. ' ' says I. Willi that I haiis Doc. Denicker. displays dis-plays the pocket flask I'd brought on purpose, and inside of three- minutes we'd established friendlv relarions. "It's this wnv.'i explains liie I'oc. wipin ' his rr.ouih careful and har.dm ' back what was left in the flask, which a:n 't enough to givo a flea au e e w-ash. "Ycu don't w;iut to use none of ;he:n limber po;es like vou cot there. Nor no fancy reel. What vou need for pickerel pick-erel is a stiff bamboo. Then vou put th butt of it again your bei'--. like this, drop your bsit clear to th bottom, and s"art wigglin '. So." And sav. J 'il bo hanged if he don't pull a two-foot pickerel right from under un-der our boat. Mavb-' Nick don't look simple, too. He wavhes i-'ey. ieker careful, care-ful, though, and says perhaps l.e can get the same effect with his jointed rod. But he don't. No matter how iv wiggles the bait up from th bottom, nothing comes with it. And Doc. Denicker Den-icker continues to hoist out big pickerel pick-erel froni aU around v.s. V.verv ;;me he does it. loo. he cocks one of thcui br.d eves at Nick and Vers g!oa::n". Nick, l.e gets red dear back of the cars. Finally he announces that he's had enough for the da'-, r.r.d wo rows back to w here w-o Yi loft :l.c car. v i:h riT even a horupout to show for our day 's spor:. "I believe there must be something in Denicker 's theory about using a s:.f! ba"ihoo polo," sa; s lie. "And I expect, thou, you got to be built proper." s:ivs 1. "Yon ccci .". n.:at-s;-.fe like his to res: the bur: against. Even with that, it looks i'kc there's quite a trick to catchiu ' piek-lercl." piek-lercl." "Trie!.!" says he. "I assure you. Shortv. it 's nn art. " I hardly 20t anotl-r I him all the wav h0Ie j.. 1 thinkin' hard and" dV t"-i ' chew ovr i,, vron .;if come right out and afc, T " taken about being eno--;, : man to warrant ar.vhC", 1'-witcbhazel 1'-witcbhazel pole v.ith tC p '''' ii he d keep it to hi-" 5t: Any wav. I was jv-;. change that trip to'-'Cv into a tour throuc-h tains, or mavbe a weM-'U 'r-'"-So a few days lat.-r' 'f 'V.'"r -again, sort of "casual p -.'-' cut in the back var'l p;';:iiJ : him standing on tits $'?: of a bamboo pole ;.! ' . the hook and lin dr".V-'U: ;1 : lot. ' " '' "Well, how are te f;-'i -today, Nick?" I asi7 "' And he sure des , x he sees n.e crinnin' sVV't -"I suppose you cr.n 7 ,i " doing. Shorty J" sr,V!! j-e - "I expect vou 're pa'-tvv j Denicker wiggle, eh? " i'a-'i T "You bet!" savs!,. '""v V get it I mean to tut ovfn,"-VT. some of those JiatBe jcw" . "Oh ho!" sav$ L i7-vj' but you'd deoi-ied v0-j man. after ail." z "A fisherman."' savs :; who fishes and has fr.i;'- V-j catches anything c,r n0;.-:" ' VsTjfceD 1 SrJ':ss QQ'r c-ai So Phyllis is dragM.i t.--- j wills again. The fevlj" couple of weeks ard'dur;;'"tj Sadie spiils more or less j" pathv for the daiotr little irjj ' "Just think! ' ' says she. -there in the wooes, with -J another woman w;:'-;- nt:!s-. -j ing to do but figh: hlsti a quitoes and s't arear.i . camp! I should thtLk s"-; t bored to death, atti ::' s';s .vij.: pneumcnia or soietiir; :ra.i:'J-be :ra.i:'J-be a wonder." I'll admit that tie i ti"' senrirr.ets. too. Art ;':?; it : night thev ca:r.e brerr!;' n . looking huskier than f--r. st; J all tanned up. with tie r.ni: r" in her cheeks and her f-;s a "Jus: look!" savs ':;. r birohbark basket aid cte:::'il I I loose a loud smell of ars;::: j perfumes. "A five-:-":: :m I that I caught and 'sr.!?: s;':-i Isn't he a beauty? Ar.: t have him mounted o l?.:z n: r: ing room firerla-te. 0:. h: i have the best tia.r u? there' " Sadie glanoes a: r.e u: s':n ' shu: iers. and I aneTere "t" i m ire. Then w e a i-tres tie fit . ! Fhvi!:s is v :':.-.' I si ttitrrtit -! the side porch while tr gtfs c j And after they're TfJ ' ; few joss sticks, w-ti i'. '' i I win i--ws orcn. Neither :s s J care for the scietv ct s tive! : i is due to be a ws!'. if : j dtv. but ain't quite srr.-e-; i state. ' - i "Who wou'd hr,ve I Sa tie. "that rhv!!:;. c: ti . I take to that ort of tr r.r: ! j "Oh. we!!! " savs I. ! m ; j r; :ht. If you can't re: r J . I might as wed via i-. Ar: J - Nick ain't so bah Ceurss. 1 -; cuse hi:u of iaviV :zi s" - v:r:::es. but he 's rstift a :'.' . I chap. He- might do ?r trj ; enough. Phyllis couldn't stand ii. Any-I Any-I one could see that. She was too frail 'and delicate for such rough jaunts into I the wilds. It had been bad enough w-hen Nick had taken her off ou their I honevmoon trip up into the woods of Maine; where t!ooy kuocked around for three weeks in fishing camps, canoeing up rivers w-ith awful sounding names, being barked at by wild moose, associating associ-ating with whiskered guides who sub sisted mainly on eating tobacco and who gave them flap.iacks overy morning morn-ing for breakfast. Phyllis, who had been brought up in a drawing room and on the front veranda, and who considered consid-ered tatting an outdoor sport! "The wonder it," says Sadie, "that she stood it as well as site did. ArJ now that Nick has a vacation h 's planning plan-ning to take her off on another viid trip like that. Shorty, you'll just have to tall; to him, that's all." "Eh?" says I. "Me crash in and point out chatty what a brute he is? No thanks. I can think of enough ways of being unpopular without tryin' that." "But I haven't said that Nick means to be cruel or brutal," says Sadie. "Of course he doesn't. He's just though-less. though-less. Being so big and strong himself he doesn't realize what he's asking Phyllis to' go through on these excursions. excur-sions. If someone would only suggest this to him no doubt he would see the point at once. And wdio has a better right than we have, Shorty! In fact, it's realiv our dutv. " "Say, anybody -'d think, to hear you go one," says j. "that we'd adopted that pair and was bringin' 'em up by hand. No. I won't promise a thing, bu' maybe I'll run down after dinner and let Nick give me the straight dope on his plans. I may give hhu a hunch and I may not. ' ' There's no mistake about his being a reg'lar fish hound, all right. You Wouldn't suspect it to look at him, either, for he's kind of a finicky-dresser finicky-dresser as a rule and seldom indulges in sporty talk. But you never can tell. I exyot Nick was born with it in him. They hadn't been livin ' out hire a fortnight before he begun askin' me I-P J "Mo.' says Phytt. "7 Ml try to r. c-v. Afsn. Keep trie canoe from, upsetting Xvi 1-r'i or staj en, the camp an.d reL vmmmwm . Tim You see. she 'd had a good deal to do, first and last, with makin' the match. Not that it needed much engineerin ', once Nick got a good look at Phydlis. but the preliminaries was Sadie's. It was a case of Phyllis visiting at the Purdy-Pells and this young Mr. Royee being dragged out to "fill in at one" of Mrs. Boomer Day's week-end affairs. Course. Sadie knew that Phyllis was as good as engaged to a man back in her home towu, down in Yirginia. But Sadie 'd heard how he was nearlv ten years older than Phyllis, and had a bald tspot. and ran a general store in some dinky country town. So she decided, sight unseen, that he wouldn't do at all. Likewise she picks on Nick Royee as a good substitute. Her next move is to have Phyllis and Nick meet at a eouple of dances, and before she knew the affair had started it was well under way. Then I'm detailed de-tailed to size up Nick and see if he's as stood as he looks. I reports favorable. He comes from Rutland, Vermont; his mother's a widow who is fairly well fixed, bavin' been left a half interest in a marble quarrv; Nick has been out of college three years, havin' put in six or eight months with the Y'ankee division, and now he has a job in Boomer Day's office. I didn't quite get the details of just what part of the bond business Nick was strugglin ' with; but I gathers that he's doing well at it. Still, them Virginia folks of Phyllis's sure raised some grand ructions when she went back and told 'em how she meant to give Baldy the sudden shunt in favor of an unknown who most likely .had the pie-breakfastin ' habit and was kind of vague as to who his great-grandfather was. And it wasn't until I'd had Nick dig up the fact that two of his ancestors helrc-d old Ethan Allen spring that Ticonderoga surprise party, and that one of his great uncles had been a candidate for governor on the Democratic ticket, that they was calmed down. We didn't mention that the great uncle was snowed under at the election, or that one of the Ticonderoga heroes survived to become a tin-peddler and broke his neck failin' out of his cart because he'd hoisted in too much hard cider. What was the use? When we produced a picture postcard of a soldier's sol-dier's monument with the names of Ephraim and Joshua Royee showin' pdain under the date 1776. we had them Virginia objectors eatin' out of our hand. So they'd been married and was now supposed to be livin' happv ever after. I couldn't see but what, thev was, too. But Sadie thinks different. This fishin ' nonsense had gone, about far where the nearest trout streams was, if there wasn't black bass in that pond over back of the country club, and if I'd ever tried for flounders off mv seawall. sea-wall. Course T couldn't give him any information. infor-mation. Fishin' ain't in my lino, never has been. Not that I ain't tried, off and on. That's something you can't very well escape. Why, even these Harlemites, born and bred in a five-room five-room fiat, and who think they're getting get-ting close to nature when thev sit in the bleachers to sen a ball game, they get rung in on the fishin' game. You'll see 'em hv the hundreds Sunday morn-in's morn-in's boardin' these fishin ' steamers for a trip out to the Kank-, or up at Pel-ham Pel-ham bav paddiin' out in skill's ai't.-r eels or what not. And once thev got the habit that's mostly what thev live for. But it never got to bo chronic with me. .Mnvbe brcaue 1 o had such p.nr luck. I've been out. too. with rrg'lar guys, who knew all the dil'lVrent kinds of fish bv th"ir fir-t tianir.. could tell vou their habits and tastes and whims; vheth.T thev lai.l their eggs ou nests, or hatcln',1 'em out in incul.ators, and si on. I've splashed through trout brooks with tto-se exports and come home vith nothing but wet t'ert and a oitl U-i-t i nil of mosquito bites. 1 e sat out in a boat on a lake all dav, and fished f..r buss right w h.TO thev told no I couidn't help cad hin ' 'oni. And I've neor failed to jinx any excursion of the hind 1 over went on. Maybe the f; li don't like mv fact1, or mv brciuli ain't pcrfinncd right. A u w a v, t he minute min-ute I drop a hook overboard thev go right from there and don't come lack until next dav, if over. What 1 n"er could quite figure out, either, is the sense of this fool idea that you got to get up before daylight if you want to catch fish. Who unloaded un-loaded that notion first? And what's it based on? They try to toll nie that fish are hungriest when thev first wake up. How do thev know fish sleep at night, same ::'. we tlo ? Who's watched 'cm at it ? Hut. suppose it 's a fact. Hon 't they rut but once a dav? And if thev do, w hv not arrive about lunch time; or rien as late as their dinner hour? If I know as much about ftsh habits as some of those birds lot on to, I wouldn't waste all that time between meals, when likclc as not the fish are loat'in' around Iniighin' lit Yin, or niav-ho niav-ho playin ' blind man 's buff, or hobiin' pei'ce com on t ions, or indulgin' in their favorite water sports. Whenever I 've put nny of these pu-7les pu-7les up to Nick bo':; pist laughed and : hook his h' ad. No, ho didn't claim 10 know all about fish. Oh, ho 'd picked up n liltlo hoie and there. About tin' onlv thing ho was dead sure of was that he liked to fish, .err teemed to worry him much whether ho got amor am-or not. Just m long .'is he had u (l;iy when he could roll tint about ! a. m., hike oil' n few mill's to wherp there was soiuii sort of water, and fool around with Ins rod nnd reel until near dark, he was siititfied. Sounds foolish enough In nie; but I can't no grout harm in it. If you can do that lort of thing and like it, then I expect it ' n form of f.port. 1 1 1 1 1 when vou go so far lis to inflict it oil the rest of the funt'lv, mlU u bt'lo wife that's never worn amlhiiig bill high heeled slipper", and has lllmoi been careful of her cimiiiIi'ioii well, that 's MUHi'tliing els" nglilll. May bo I bIioiiIiI drop n hint I o Nick. I finds him unwrnppin' n lot of pack-agoH pack-agoH and boNoi nod spreadin' whtit 'n in 'cm on Ihn livm' room tiible. And ( never knew before what ii coinplic.'iteil (llltfll. VOU COIllil Collect Jllsl lo j.'.. Ilfler 11 few fish. 1'iri'l oil, I hero was n sot of jointoil roils: throe of 'em, lieu nnd finny nnd fdiek lookin'; with roils In go w 1 1 It 'em. ' ' , ell, well! " says 1 " I.i.i.Vk like j "On your w-ay back," savs I. "I expect ex-pect ou '11 be taking a run down into irgii'.ia to let 1'hvllis see the folks?" "Not this vear." sins Nick, "(iau't afford it." And how vou going to get tit an ego that's so covered with fish scaios? I gio it up. If 1'hvHis didn't have spunk enough to stand, up for her rights, then she'd have to wonv along the best way sho could.. St ill, 1 was kind of sorrv for her. Then 1 meets this old friend of mine. Prick liar, lev. who is the ox-boss of the countv aid r. partv who's wise iu the head on a lot of subjects. Somehow Some-how he mentions this oung Mr. Koyce, saving what a fine chap he seems to be. and 1 tells him about tnis secret fishin' vice of his and what a raw deal the little wife is gcttm ' out of it. "Huh!" grunts Brick. "Think 's lie's a f isherirl.iii, does he? Like to cure him of that, would vou?" "Can't be done, " says 1. "That's the w orst of t lie disease. ' ' "Can't. i'hl" says Brick. ""Then I guess we'll have to run him up against old I'oc Denicker." V. ith thai he proceeds to sketch out the plot of the piece. I'd seen this Doc Deiiicker person driftiu' around thp village on and ,.ff, but about all 1 knew of him was lli.it he couldn't bo eliifsod as one of the or mi incnt a 1 oit-i.-.eiis of Kook hurst on 1 ho Sound. He's n groiisv, whiskered, hi aw lumnchod old pirate, with a couple otv had eves Ipoerin' out from under the bushiest evehrows ou over saw. Seems he'd drifted down f r nn somewhere up in Connecticut year-, ago and had worked up kind of a reputation among the mill-hands mill-hands as an licib doctor. lie lived iu n little shack four or five miles out and even fall he used to go around takin' orders for what he called Ins Juniper leivk Stoinncli Hilters. Acinrdm' to Hi'iok, the stuff he sold whs oki, -flv- poor whisky, flavored up wiih various roots and things, :m, finally the sheriff caught him at it and had linn soul up tor Mx months, sin,-, then he'd op, into, 1 very cautious, if I,,, hndil'l ipi-t allnitelher. and had given out that ho wa fishin' for n livin'. ' ' ovv , I here '" a pond mv buck there." mi Uriel,. "th'H's jii fu; of po'kerol nnd other toll, ' obod know il until Hoc IVniekor bc:;nn hniii'iu ' 'oni out and pcMIni ' 'oni 'round. People have fislio.) holes in that pond and never caught a -thing, l'llt Denicker cnil bring out II do.cn pickerel iiiiv time lie likes. Somehow, hn h;iT, the knack. W hon is omr friend b'ov.-o pliinnni' to Mart on this epc,i lion of his, " "In nbonl I ou da vs." sav n I . "Then I hole's linio for him to meet Doe l'oniclier first." nvi llrick. " A f ter that lie in n v feel ihfforont al.,M, going so tar to ry In, ck. " y |