The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1883-08-30


casting lines, my notion was, don't let
him have any of those troublesome
things in the water to bother him and
get in his way. "Dibbing" is the very
thing for him: you keep a big humble
bee Topping up and down on the top of
the water, and if you only make it look
lifelike enough, you'll get him one of
these days. But the day was long in
| coming. / shall never forget peeping
| cautiously through the reeds and seeing
the sardOnic look upon his lordship's
| face as 1 kept agitating the rod point
and keeping a large mayfy dancing
wildly about two feet from his stately
/ nose. He never showed the slightest
| desire to possess himself of the dainty,
and only acknowledged the delicate at
/ tention at last by steering foot further
! off. This want of confidence hurt me
very much.
| The keepers idea was that a fish like
that was better out of the brook than
| in-'' always a eating of the small fry"
as he elegantly cOndescended to ex-
! plain. So Velveteens was allowed to
| have a grand tield-day, when he sum-
mOned two or three other choice spir-
| its. and, after mature deliberatiOn, they
| agreed to block up both ends of the
culvert with nets and then brighten him
] llJO OllC VI lllClu. OO llIO RCllluSCo oCL
| to work with their apparatus, and re-
| freshment in the shape of a large stone
| Jar of heady ale. And first they blocked
up one end, watching to see he didn't
bolt, and then they closed up the other.
| Now they were sure they had got him,
and they sent word up to the house for
the gentlemen to come and see the big
| trout caught. But we didn't quite like
| the idea of a game fish being done to
| death in that fashion, 80 none of us went
| dOwn-fOrtunately, as it happened, for
in the event there was very little to see.
| When they had got their nets down, one
| intrepid spirit volunteered to GO in I'M
| der the culver with a stick, to ''prOd -
| him out. In he went and splashed I'M
! der the culvert in very cramped and
uncomfortable position, [ should rather
! fancy; but after "prodding away for
a quarter of an hour without boiling
| the big fish, he came out again looking
rather in want of the fresh air,
and said two or three big snags had
| drifted in with the stream under the
| culvert, and the trout must be trOtting
up and down under these, for he never
| could even feel him with all his "prOd-
| ding
After some bad language, and finish
ing the contents of the stone jar, Vel
veteens then disbanded his talented CO.
terie, and sent up to the house to know
if he might shoot him next time he
might Happen upon i'm hOutside the
culvert" But this reused the finer feel
ings of our very imperfect nature, for
so far we had been consenting unto his
untimely end by nets and ''prodding. p"
But now we felt that his escape was
! prOvidential, and we unanimously de-
clared that so fine fish should never
come to his end save by fair and lawful
methods.
Alas for such goodly resolution!
Only the very next week we had two
troublesome schOOl-bOY cousins to stay
with us, and we were sOrely put to IL to
provide them with entertainment. For
tunately they were, considering their
age and inexperience, determined ang-
lers; and as the contemplative sport
took up much of their time and very
little of ours, we always encouraged
their disposition toward it to the fullest
extent. We even went so far as to tell
them all about our pet trout, laughing
in our sleeve the while to think what a
pretty dance he would lead them if they
once fairly became engrOSsed in endeav-
Ors for his capture. We really turned
an apOplectic purple with inward laugh
! ter when giving them full instructions
how to approach the culvert without
being observed by the ever-watchful
fish. But we laughed too soon.
1t was only one short hour afterward
that two members of our party, as they
were leisurely pacing up and down the
terrace walk, heard bowls of delight
proceeding from the vicinity of the Mill
| plantation culvert, bowls so inexpressi-
bly, dreadful, that their first thought
was that one of these unrulY school
boys was numbering the other, and that
this devoted other was strenuOusly re-
sisting his own untimely demise Full
of this idea, they fled wildly in the di-
rectiOn of the culvert, and were reward
ed on arrival at the brook by seeing
these two pleasant boys squatting like
Red Indians upon their hams, yelling
| with an irrepressible emotion, and in
the midst of them, Hopping vainly on
| the grass, was fOur-pOUnd trout!
The rest of this sad story is soon told
Our instructions how to approach I'M
seen had been all too perfect. With an
ingenuity that was positively fiendish.
they had first made a cross-line out of a
| ball of string we had Unwittingly lent
them to fly their kites with, and had at
tached to the middle of this line yard
of strong salmon gut, and to that, again,
three powerful hooks tied back to
back as in pike-fishing, with live-bait.
This done, like some crafty Ojibbeway
upon the war-path, one willy
schoolboy had squirmed along, Uer1tre
q terre, and across the culvert till he
was safe on the further bank, and ex-
actly opposite the unconscious fish,
taking one end of the cross-Iine with
him. With Macchiavellian cunning
had they then approached the water
down either bank, till they could both just
get a peep of the monster through the
rushes, and could drop the hooks softly
down into the water not far from his
noble tail. He had no suspicion of his
danger, but lay, they said, without ever
moving, till they worked the hooks
stealthily along, using fair ''give and
take with the cross-line, right under
his belly-fns-and then-hOrreScO refer
ems !-they regularly ''Sndtcbed'' him.
One good upward jerk from two pow
erful school-bOy arms, acting in har-
monous accord, fixed the hooks firmly
into the under part of his body, and
then his play (Or so they called it,
for what was death to him was sport to
his inhuman assailants) was brief but
tremendous.
Alas for that trout! he was goodly
and pleasant in his life, yet the Phil