The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-12-16
HE WAS UNBELIEYING
SToREKEEPER REFUSED TO
CREDIT TALE OF FISHERMAN.
Squire 5undy's Pleasure in Landing
Fourteen-Pound Pike With a Line
Spoiled by the Unreasonableness of
Friend.

The only surprising thing about
the catching of that pike" said Squire
Bundy, Sage of the French Creek
Dead Waters, was the aggravating
unreasonableness of Tom Agnew, who
keeps store over yonder in the vii
lage, and weighed the pike. My fam
lily had got fish hungry and said there
must be black bass for breakfast Lext
morning. So l picked up a pole and
line, jumped in my boat, and started
out to get the bass.
Don't go and catch any of those
great big ones, now, and only catch
two my wife said to me as / pulled
cut. Two three-pounders will be
plenty.
81 said l would try to keep myself
down to two bass and though l hated
to bother with three-pounders, I'd
draw the line this time at any over
that.
$50 1 went to fishing. 1 had
strike before l had crossed the foam
nals way. | saw when / felt him
strike that he wouldn't weigh more
than two pounds and a half, but it
was getting dark pretty fast, and
hadn't time to let him go and to fool
around for a three-pounder, so / hook
ed him and landed him. l calculated
getting the other bass by the time
had crossed the boom, but | had to
stop my boat, for my hook struck
what l supposed was a snag, and l
stopped my boat.
Il hadn't stopped a second, though,
and felt of my line, when I knew it
wasn't a snag l had struck. There
was life at the other end of the line.
| thought at first it was a pike, but
when a French Creek pike feels the
hook in it's jaw it comes out of the
water like a skyrocket, going up, and
as nothing of this kind occurred, I
| concluded a mud turtle had snubbed
on to me. I didn't care to have a
mud turtle pull that line apart, go of
with my hook, and cheat me out of
that other bass l was going to get, so
l coaxed him up toward the top.
HE came along slow and easy and
when l got him to the top / saw
had been fooled. 1t wasn't a mud
turtle, and made grab for the smell
that my hook was fastened to the
line with, got it, and with one sweeI
landed a fourteen and half pike il
the boat. He gave one turn over il
the bottom of the boat, and that littl,
move pulled the line in two like melt
ing snow. The only way / could &C
count for that pike acting the way
did when it got the hook was that i
discovered the rotten condition o
that line, and made up his min
there wasn't any use of going to tn
trouble of jumping out of the water t
free itself, but that it would jus
come up to the top easy, let me Sc
what a beauty it was, and then twitcl
the line apart and go back, leaving m
to cuss my luck. But the pike hadn'
counted on me grabbing that SMELL
well, of course, with that pike il
the boat it ID be only waste o
time and fish TO get the other has
intended to get, so quit fishing.
rowed over and took the pike to Tor
Agnew's store to have it weighed, t
see how near / had come to sizing
up. Tom weighed the fish. It til
ped the scales at fourteen and a hal
pounds and one ounce. After he ha
weighed the pike and looked it owe
and admired it, Tom asked me what
had caught it on. l told him an
showed him the line. To show 70
how aggravatingly unreasonable
was, he looked at the line, and then g
me, and said:
You're an internal liar!
And that was the only surprisin
thing ever saw about the catching {
that pike-Tom Agnew's aggravatin
unreasonableness. New York Sun.