The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-15


carefully and fired charge after charge
on at that starving sailor. You see
the flames of the powder broiled the
! steap and the suet melted into gravy.
Every piece of steak struck the mast
head. and The sailor caught them all
| as they rebounded. The keeper said
that he fired of either three pounds
and five ounces of three pounds and
and three ounces-of steak. remem-
Der now. And the sailor ate every
shred Of it.
! You see how it was that l couldn't
help thinking about this wreck when
your neighbOr here said the storm
made him hungry
After about am mute of dead silence
Uncle Jimmie Keyes cleared his throat
and said:
"Uh-stranger, would you jest tell us
| what kind of a gun it was they used to
fire them beefsteaks eff to the sailor
with?"
1T was a little brass cannon with a
bore nearly two inches and a half in
diameter. Fine guns those life-savers
have, and every keeper has to be a
dead shot"
Il should say so, after hearin' your
account of EN-. And it was five pound
and seven ounces of steak the sailor
ate?'
No, sir; five pounds and three
ounces. OF course the weight shrunk
some in the cooking. as every one must
allow, for powder flame is terribly hot
| But it's safe to say he ate at least five
pounds
Your story reminds me of the time
me and Lem Lawson here and three or
| four more of US went fishing through
| the ice on Mad Toms Hole one day
some years ago when there weren't no
game laws enforced by sneaking con-
stables. West Creek was full of trout
in them days. And it's what you was
sayin' about that sailor chaps appe-
| title that reminded me of the trout. A
Teller that belongs to the Utica Snow
shoe club told me onct that trout was
voracious, and 1 reckon he was right,
for when | asked what YOracious meant
he said it meant a dummed hog.
''HoWs' ever, it's not fer me to find
fault with EN- on that account. The
fact is, 1 think of it with gratitude.
We was havin' powerful good luck
with middlin'- sized trout that day,
baitin' with strips of deer liver and
lights; that's the killinest bait l know
of. But along about 10 o'clock a big
gish sort of an old he-feller came along
and with jerk he grabbed off my hook
and bait and a yard of line. If my end
of the line hadn't been tied to my an
kle l low he'd took the whole string
with it,
The next minute he was under
LENS hole in the ice, and takes bait
and hook from him. Then he tackles
the next chap, and the next, just like a
drummer workin' the stores in Boone
vile, only he wasn't satisfied with
skinnin' us all onct; he must come
back to me an go the round over again.
And, sir, when he'd done us all up the
twice he comes a third time and grabs
my hook, which it were the last l had.
was that excited I forgot what | was
about, and when | rightly sensed my
self, I'd slipped into the hole and under
the ice and got towed SO far away from
it I couldn't reach back. And what
was worse. | was that fabbergasted
l couldn't tell which way to reach,
anyway.
Boys, it's a solemn matter as Lem
Lawson will tell ye for him and the
rest was that busy with their fishin'
they never seen I was gone, and I'd no
more than riz up under the ice (being
fatter in them days than l be now
than I felt I'd bust if I didn't let, the
breath cut. l claWed around in all di-
rections, feelin' for the hole till I
couldn't stand it no more, and then
out the breath hal to come, an l al
most give up hope.
Stranger, it's a pleasure to tell this
story to a dedicated gentleman from
the city like yourself, for some ignorant
country Jakcs won't believe it's o. No
sooner did | let that breath out than
| noticed the smell of tOhacker begun
to disappear from it. 1t was a CROWN
sweet rapid, and that reminded me of
the beavers and the offers an the
muskrats what travels for miles under
the ice just by soakin' their breaths.
Thinkin' of that ere revived me Won
derfuI, for l lowed I'd be able to live
till I could wriggle around an find the
hole. An [ tell you l worked like chop
pin wood by the cord, too. But, when
I'd drawed in and let out that soaked
breath more times than | can count and
was getting fiustered agin / felt a
pull on the line that was fast to my
ankle yet Then come a lot of jerks
and l was drug clean away from tie
bubble in spite of my claWln' an dig
gin my toes into the ice, and there |
was stranglin', sure enough. This time
| gived up for good an ALL an I was
just beginnin' to realize the glories
what's awaiting the just man made
perfect when [ was hauled out on top
of the ice by Lem.
You see, that ere trout what had
drug me under the water had been
hooked to stay the last time he come
to me. But it didn't satisfy his appe-
tite by any means, even when he had
me under the water. He wrastled with
the line for a time, and that was when
[ was a-wrigglin around an workin'
on my soaked breath, but when he
found he couldn't rid of it he was
that hungry for more grub he swum to
LENS half, like he'd done before, and
Lem. havin' been trained by me, hook
ed him and hauled him out, an me,
too.
We counted the hooks that trout
had in his mouth. I don't remember
exactly whether it was seventeen or
nineteen, but when I come to compare
my watch, which it had stopped as I
went down, with LENS, [ found I'd