The Penn's Grove record., 1884-06-14

In a city not a thousand miles from
Hartford, Conn. is 4 private sports
mans association, and every year, IN
August or September, they have a
grand excursion to a favored pond, a
days journey off, and some Twelve
miles into the forest, away from any
h|abitation, and spend som TWO or
three weeks.
One of the number who had been
brought up IN the good old purltanlc
way to reverence the Sabbath, told the
writer how near he came to fishing sun
day. Some of the party spent Saturday
evening fishing, so as to have a supply
for Sunday. Sunday morning, my IN
formant says, he % at break OF day.
All were in their hunks, sound asleep,
and snoring as tired sportsmeu a n
Pulling on his pants and slippers he
went to the boat to see what success
the evening fisherman had. There
were eels and bullheads lying in the
bottem of the boat in abundance. In
the stern of the boat was a fishing pole
with the line in the water. thinking
it was very careless to leave it in that
way, / began pulling in the line, when
SOLlbJllluB SJIuCh INC bdlJ anu an N'N
with the line at a rapid rate.
"What was l to do? You know l
never fish Sunday; but there was a pole
and line going overheard unless pull
ed them in. | thought it was right to
save property and landed a three pound
pickerel. AS the bait was on the hook
/ concluded to throw it III the water
and leave it as | found 1t and say moth
ing about it. But the bait had no
sooner struck the water than there was
a splash, and whirr went the reel again.
GracIOusl What next2 You know
nothing would tempt me to fish Sunday;
but | must save property and in SO do
ing landed another pickerel as large as
the first.
81 always like to leave borrowed
property where | find it, and the line
was thrown in again, and started for
the shore, when, to my surprise the
whizzing sound of the reel painfully
greeted my ear. | FASTENED back Just
in time to catch the pole as it was being
drawn overheard. My conscience re-
buked me for going near the boat, for
you know it is strictly against my prin-
ciples to fish Sunday; but / must save
the pole, fish or no fish, and in comes
another large pickerel., This time the
bait was taken, and | was right glad of
it, for | now could leave the pole and
line where | found them without any
danger of their being lost.
II fastened back to camp and luckily
found all asleep and as musical as when
| left. Hastily undressing myself, |
Jumped into my bunk undiscovered.
After a time the cook got up went to
the boat and came back with the pick
erel, exclaiming: See here, boys, how
is 1t you catch pickerel in the night2'
This aroused the sleepy fishermen, and
they declared that there were no pick
erel when they left. They accused the
cook of patching them Sunday. lie
firmly protested his innocence and said:
If / had just taken them they would
now have been alive
All this time | was apparently sleep
ing soundly. When | got up they were
shown to me as the three largest pick
erel that had been taken during the
week; but how they came to be In the
boat was a mystery. The final conclu-
sion was that the greedy fish must have
jumped into the boat to get something
to eat, and forgot to jump back again.
This to my mind was a very satisfactory
explanation.
They were cooked for our breakfast,
but l had no appetite for the dainty re-
past. All Sunday my conscience was
i'll at ease, and | read my bible by the
hour, and l don't believe l could tell
whether l was reading in Genesis or
Revelations-the latter, l think, be-
aus visions of pickerel were before me
all the time. Not a chapter could |
read without hearing the whizzing Of
the reel, or seeing those yellow bellies
turn up. Now, | tell you, that is the
nearest | even came to fishing Sunday,
and Idon't think anything would tempt
to get into a boat again Sunday, except
to save some one from drowning "