The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-26

many hounds. What it could be thai
| snelt SO fine we did not know. We
tuck the scent and follered it up on the
keen run. In bout a mile we come to
queer, lookin little house. In thar was
the stuff that smelt SO good. We dived
in and began film ourselves with the
good smellin stuff, when down fell a
door and we wur Gagged.
Yer see, gents, when they wanted to
ketch up any NV us wild Missourians,
they made pen just like bar trap,
baited it with corn bread and sot 1t.
When the wind wur right one of the
woods breed could smell corn dodger
nigh on to three miles.
'sWaal, when the trap fell we tore
round like mad, but couldn't escape.
| Long bout shutdown some soldiers come
and tuck us out'n the trap. They tuck
us and put us inter the upper story OF a
blockhouse bout fifty feet high. Thai
they left us in the dark.
"Waal, we soon seed that eff we had a
rope we could git away. So then we be
gan pickin ourselves-pulling out the
long har that covered our bodies-to
make rope. 1t wur an awful sore job.
After all of us had been clean picked
we tried the rope and found it bout ten
feet too short. Then told my two pards
that they might take har enough out'n
the top of my head to finish the rope.
They tuck the har, and in less'n ten
minutes we wur all at liberty.
"Now, gents" said Buck, ''as some Of
yez may think I'm lyin bout this bust
ness, I'll jist show yez whar my mates
got the har to splice out that rope. y
Then taking off his sombrero Buck
showed that the whole top of his head
was as smooth as peeled onion.
"Waal," continued Buck, "after we
got out'n that thar blockhouse we cut
and run for bout five hours acrost a
stretch of country we knowed nothin
about, for we wur lost when we struck
inter fields and fenced ground; besides,
we thought all the houses we seed wur
blockhouses.
"Bein now naked we had to keep
movin to keep warm, so we Travelled as
fast as we could all that night. When
the sun got up we sot on bluff bank
above the blessed old Mississippi, that
seemed mother to us. Thar we enjoyed
the sun like SO many turtles on a log.
ssAs we sot on the bluff we looked
down upon the river and thar on the
side next to us we seed a goodish sized
catfish laying a-sunnin itself near to
shore. The cat wur bout twenty-five
feet long--too big fur to snare so we
looked about fur some other way Of
ketchin him.
ga few hundred yard above we saw
big rope stretched across the river. 1t
wur ferry rope, but then in our wild
state we didn't know as it belonged to
anybody. We went up thar and tuck
the rope, no one bein bout thar One of
us had to swim the river to cast the rope
loose from tree on the opposite side.
We'd got'r have the rope because it had
on it at one end big iron hook.
Next we wanted some kind of good
live bait. While lookin bout for bait
long comes a little niger boy drivin a
COW. We ketched him, and lashin him on
to the hook foated him down, swimmin
like a frog, to whar the big catfish wur.
The cat snapped the little mig up like a
flash and swallered him down.
.sAll hands of us tuck the rope over
our shoulders, and maxim dash inland
hauled the big cat high and dry. We cut
the fish open at once and tuck out the
little niger all alive and kickin. When
we unlashed and turned him loose he
went off as Timber as an eel, an the fust
thing he did was to hunt up his ole COW
and drive her along jist as gentle as if
we hadn't had the loan of him and used
him for few minutes. He had but one
little tooth mark on his back"
"Was that the biggest catfish you ever
caughtY' asked one of our party.
Buck eyed the man for moment,
and then asked where he was from.
''From Tennessee, just across the
river and little below where you got
your big fish," said our man.
"Waal, as for catfish, said Buck. "you
can ketch 'em in the Mississippi of any
size you want. 1t depends altogether
on the size Of the hook and the bait.
With full grown nigger-but, stranger,
it wouldn't look well for me to take up
all the time with my own explites, SO
I'll fust let you tell Of any catfish you
ketched on your side of the river"
$50 that was not your biggest cat
fshT'
"rm not sayin beauty afore age, young
man"
1t being evident that Buck was deter
mined to have the closing speech, the
boss of the commissary department was
instructed to bring out the redeye for
another round. The fishing rods were
then stuck into the bank and left to
catch or not, as luck went, while all
hands stretched out upon the blankets
spread in front of the tent to hear.
CHAPTER II.
THE STORY OF THE SECOND PIKE.
This Pike was called Bud. He
opened by saying: Scents, I can't tell